Demonic Intervention
by Lazy to Write
Summary: Although there were still many problems like discrimination against half elves, Exsphere brokers wreaking havoc here and there, the world of Aselia had been enjoying relative peace for the past 12 years. However, that peace was shattered when a threat in the form of demons, Summon Spirits and a spirit came up. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be dead?"
1. Prologue

I had decided to start another story only after I finished my current fanfic... but I recently finished watching the United World Episodes of the OVA of TOS (it's a really long wait... but I managed to wait till all three episodes to come out before watching them in one go) and suddenly this plot came up in my mind and I just had to write it out.

This fic is actually connected to the other fic I'm currently writing: Fonic Interruption, but you don't have to read it to understand the events in this fic. Fonic Interruption is about Kratos in Auldrant and this fic is about the happenings in Aselia during the duration of Fonic Interruption, so there isn't really a connection for the time being. The real connection will come out very late in this fanfic.

The events in this fic happens 12 years after the events in TOS:KoR and 10 years after the start of Fonic Interruption.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Kight of Ratatosk

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**Prologue**

The door opened and a young man who looked to be somewhere near twenty five was pushed roughly into the room. He lost his footing due to the rough push and fell down onto the ground after stumbling for a few steps. The door closed behind him and the room suddenly became very dark. There was no window and the only light source was from a small rectangular hole near the bottom of the metal door, the hole where food was passed into the room, not that the current occupants of the room needed to eat any food.

The young man crawled up from the ground and went to sit against a wall. He had brown eyes, unkempt reddish brown hair that stood up in spikes, though some of them were too long and fell down in front of his face. He wore a tattered dull red, which was actually bright red nearly a month ago, shirt with white buttons, dull red gloves, dark gray pants and a pair of worn red boots. His expression was that of an exhausted man.

The man let out an exhausted sign and said to the empty cell. "Let me rest for ten minutes, okay?"

The moment he finished his question, a translucent figure appeared in front of him while hovering a few inches above the air. The figure was that of a boy with shoulder length blond hair wearing white clothing with blue linings, deep blue pants and a pair of matching white boots.

"Make it half an hour, you need to be on your best for the plan to work." The ghostly figure whispered in such a small voice that if not for the man's advanced hearing, he would have missed it.

"No, ten minutes is fine, I am not that tired." The man protested, eager to carry out their plan.

The spirit arched an eyebrow at the man's stubbornness and knew that if the man was anywhere near as stubborn as his father, which the spirit knew he was, and in fact _much more _stubborn than his father, he would need another approach to make him give in.

"The battle just now was fiercer than the previous ones. I also need to take a rest."

"But-"

"Lloyd Aurion, that's final. The both of us need to rest. Remember that we only have one chance." The boy narrowed his eyes at the whining man. _Seriously, isn't he already thirty one years old? Even I stopped whining when I was twenty or so years old, and I looked even younger than he is now. What would you say if you see your son now, Kratos?_

"It's Lloyd Irving Aurion. And stop it."

"Stop what?" The spirit asked innocently.

"I knew that look. Stop whatever you are thinking."

"What look?" He asked again as he continued his innocent act.

"Yuan also had that look when he insulted me in his mind and started thinking about dad." Lloyd said with an expression that could be interpreted as 'what do you think I am, stupid?'

The boy closed his eyes and shrugged. "Could have fooled me."

"I hate it when you read my mind."

"The feeling is mutual, though in your case I think I should say lucky guess instead. Anyway, I will let you know when half an hour is up." The boy said and faded into thin air, leaving Lloyd as the only occupant of the cell.

"I hate it when you do that too." Lloyd said aloud to the now empty cell.

"Go to sleep Lloyd." A voice echoed in the cell even though the boy was nowhere in sight.

"Fine, goodnight dad." Lloyd said before lying down and closed his eyes.

The boy reappeared in the cell once he knew Lloyd's consciousness was starting to drift away and rolled his eyes at the 'dad' comment. It was something like a joke between them, with Lloyd saying the spirit was becoming more and more like Kratos and the spirit refuting that Lloyd was the one that was becoming more and more like his own father, both physically and mentally.

_It's good that we are planning to escape today, the attack and beating really are getting more and more vigorous if an angel, albeit young like Lloyd, could be so tired to go into a semi-conscious state in less than a minute. _The boy thought and frowned as he saw Lloyd had already gotten into a semi-conscious state, the state that angels, or Cruxis Crystal users, only go into to regain strength when exposed extremely stressful situation.

The spirit then decided to follow Lloyd's example and lied down to rest, though he was still hovering in the air.

_Soon we will escape this hell hole. Then... then I will need to face my past... my enemies... and the victims of my crazy plan..._


	2. The Attack

Here you go, two chapters in one day, because seriously, I think just reading the prologue is a bit confusing and not too attracting. Enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Kight of Ratatosk

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**Chapter 1: The Attack**

_~ 120 days ago ~_

Niflheim, the Underworld, also referred to as the Daemonium, was the world of demons that was previously connected to Aselia before Derris Kharlan arrived and the passage was sealed by Ratatosk, the Lord of Monster and the Summon Spirit of the previous World Tree, ten thousand years ago. For the past ten thousand years, demons of different levels had been trying to overflow their previous King, who was rumored to be satisfied with just ruling over the Underworld and never made an attempt to find a way back to Aselia, and force their way back to Aselia.

A group of demons, led by the current King of Niflheim, Atrament, devised a plan to break the seal applied by Ratatosk by luring a half elf named Richter with the revival of his friend that was killed by Ratatosk thirteen years ago. But that plan failed when Richter was defeated by Ratatosk twelve years ago. The demons also heard from the other side of the sealed door that Richter originally intended to sacrifice his own life mana to bar the entrance of the demons into Aselia after the demons resurrected Aster, something he was currently doing even though Aster wasn't resurrected.

However, the failure of the plan only gave fuel to the group of demons led by Atrament. Just two years ago, Atrament defeated and sealed the previous King and had been working towards another plan to break the seal and gathering high level demons of different aspects to aid him in his plan. Today, the plan was going to bear fruit and soon the demons in Niflheim would be able to overtake Aselia, their rightful home.

Right now, Atrament, a humanoid demon that was almost seven feet tall with gray-almost-white skin, four black horns protruding from his head, white long hair that reached his waist and large black soulless eyes, was standing in front of six high level hooded demons in a circular room.

The six demons were standing on the six points of the hexagon on a magic circle drawn with some black liquid, the black blood of demons. Runes were laced all over the circle, some even outside the circle, and a reversed symbol of death was drawn in the middle of the circle. Six torches with blue flames, the only light source in the room, were placed on the edge of the room, each torch directly behind a demon.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened and a dark purple, so dark it was almost black, gas blob floated in.

"Your Majesty. You summoned me, I suppose the preparation is complete?" The gas 'said' in a dissembled voice.

"Yes, now get over there so we can start." Atrament said as he pointed towards a circle that was drawn opposite his current position with his skeleton like finger with overly long black fingernails.

The gas wordlessly floated towards the position Atrament pointed at and stopped and hovered directly above the circle the Demon King indicated. Once the gas was in place, Atrament signaled the hooded figures and they started chanting. The circle that Atrament was standing on started glowing as he felt his energy being drained for the ritual.

After a while, the runes and the lines drawn with black blood started glowing and the blue flames expanded in sudden bursts and further lighted up the room. The flames left the torch and started floating towards the centre of the room, or the centre of the magic circle, and merged together to became one very large flame.

The merged flame was so large that it nearly touched the ceiling of the room. After another twenty seconds of chanting from the six hooded demons, the flames started to converge and formed the shape of a boy. Just before the shape was fully formed, the circle the gas blob was hovering above started glowing and suddenly the gas blob converged into a dense sphere and dived towards the now fully formed shape and merged with it so fast that it was like the sphere was being sucked towards the centre of the room.

The chanting slowed and eventually stopped. Black mist started floating out of the hooded figures and faded into nothingness as the hooded figures collapsed one after another, leaving behind only six piles of clothes. For a moment, the room became so dark that Atrament couldn't see anything even with his demonic night vision as the ritual completed with the annihilation of the six hooded demons and the blue flames formed figure lost its brightness.

After a while, the figure in the centre of the room started glowing with a very dim light. The Demon King smiled his infamous cruel smile showing his sharp and long teeth as he gazed at the dimly glowing translucent figure floating several inches above the ground.

"Void, can you hear me?"

The figure, which turned out to be boy around fifteen years old with shoulder length blond hair wearing white shirts with blue linings, white shoulder guard also with blue linings, dark blue pants and matching white boots, opened his blue soulless eyes and bowed. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"How's the battle?"

"He's still confused, making him easy to manipulate, though I am sorry have to inform Your Majesty that even in his confused state, he refused to help us." The ghostly figure said in the same dissembled voice as the gas just now without raising his head.

Atrament narrowed his eyes at the information. "Then we should be glad that I foresaw the need to include you in the ritual. How long do you need?"

"Another five years or more to break his mind or another three months to have full access to his power."

"We don't require his full service. We'll dispose of him once he fulfilled the task." Atrament said as he waved his hand.

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_~ 27 days ago ~_

"Ey bud! Led's wrink!" The red haired ex-chosen of Tetha'alla exclaimed as he wound his arm around his best friend and raised his other hand that was holding a glass of red wine into the air.

Lloyd sighed at his friend's antics and noticed Zelos was already half drunk as he smelled the alcohol on him. "No, Zelos, you better drop your glass right now before Sheena saw you."

"Aww, dun be 'uch a killjoy, 'oday's yur birsday!" Zelos slurred drunkenly.

Before Lloyd could say another word, an angry female voice thundered from behind them and Lloyd could hear knuckles crackling. "Zelos Wilder! How many times do I need to tell not to drink before your children?"

Hearing the question, the drunkenness on Zelos suddenly evaporated as he released Lloyd from his death lock and turned around to look at his wife, Sheena Fujibayashi, now known as Sheena Wilder, and started walking backwards nervously. "Hunny? No need to get this angry, it's supposed to be a birthday party, hear the key word? Party, you know, is supposed to be fun and-"

"Any last words?" Sheena had a beautiful smile on her face as she asked the question in a very cheerful voice while she crackled her fist.

"Not the face, pretty please?" Was Zelos' last words before the fight – cough – beating began.

Lloyd was walking away from Zelos and Sheena as shouts of 'dammit, I said not the face, what if the kids saw my ruined face later' and 'use your own damn First Aid to heal it after I finish with you' were sounded behind him followed by laughter of other people.

Today was Lloyd Irving Aurion's thirty first birthday, though to those who didn't know him personally, they would think Lloyd's turning twenty two today. Although Lloyd once promised to destroy his own special Cruxis Crystal after all the Exphere was destroyed (not that he had already accomplished the feat), Yuan told him that he had had it on his body too long for him to live normally even after the removal of the crystal, coupling with the fact that the crystal was a memento of his mother, Lloyd decided not to destroy it and just let it sit on the back of his hand for the rest of his life.

Yuan had found a way to remove the not aging side effect of the crystal (though some may not think of it as a side effect) several years ago and although it didn't exactly allow them (Colette, Zelos, Lloyd and Yuan) to age normally like the others (they aged slowly now), at least they didn't have to wait till some horrible accident or fatal sickness to end their lives.

Today was Lloyd's birthday and Colette, Sheena and Zelos had organised a birthday party in Zelos' mansion in Meltokio. However, since Lloyd didn't want to have too many people coming, only fourteen people (apart from the Aurion and Wilder family) were invited to the party and out of the fourteen people, five people (Raine, Yuan, Emil, Marta and Emily, Emil and Marta's daughter) couldn't come.

He started climbing the stairs to the roof, hoping to have some time alone. However, his plan of having some time alone was ruined as he saw his wife, Colette Brunel, now known as Colette Aurion, already sitting on the roof. Deciding Colette's company was better than going back to the party hall, he made his way to his wife.

"Hey Colette." Lloyd called out as he neared his wife.

"Oh hello Lloyd. I though you would come earlier."

"You were waiting for me? How do you know I'm coming here?"

"Every year on your birthday you always found a place to brood on your own. It just appears that the roof is the perfect spot for you to brood this year so here I am, to stop you from brooding." Colette said and lightly punched Lloyd on his arm.

"Ouch, that hurt Colette, and I don't brood." Lloyd fainted being hurt and held onto the arm that Colette just punched.

Colette just smiled and shook her head before looking upward to the night sky. "Do you still miss him?"

Lloyd lied down next to Colette and put his hands behind his head. He looked up and started searching the night sky. "I will never stop missing him, he's my dad after all."

He smiled as he finally found what he was looking for, a purple star that, for some reason, had been sitting in the same position since ten years ago, Derris Kharlan, the comet his biological father, Kratos Aurion, was staying in. It was during time like this that Lloyd was very grateful for his angel status, for without his enhanced sight, he would never be able to make out the dim star that was Derris Kharlan, something he confirmed with Genis when his half elf friend told him he couldn't see anything purple even when Lloyd was pointing at it. He dully remembered Raine saying something about Derris Kharlan not being a star and thus not very bright or something like that.

"I'm sorry Lloyd, that wasn't what I meant."

"Huh?" Lloyd blinked and looked at Colette.

Colette turned to face Lloyd as she reworded her question. "Do you still feel very sad when you think of him? I'm sorry the wording of my previous question wasn't that good."

"There's nothing for you to apologize, I just misinterpreted your question."

"You're right, I am sorry."

"You dork. Stop apologizing." Lloyd said fondly as he held eye contact with his wife.

"I'm sorry."

Lloyd smiled and shook his head at Colette's reply. _Something never changed._

He then turned his gaze back towards the purple star. "To answer your question, yes, I still feel sad, but not as frequent as before. I have dad, I mean Dirk, you, your father, our son and my friends, so even when I feel sad, I wasn't as sad as before."

"Okay, if you say so." Then Colette also returned to star gazing and let silence fell between the two of them until-

"So the two of you are really here." Genis said as he climbed onto the roof and noticed his childhood friends.

"Genis, you found us." Colette smiled and looked at their friend as he came over and sat next to Lloyd.

"Hello, Genis, how nice of you to join us, I thought you were busy chatting with Presea and forgot about your best friend?" Lloyd grinned towards Genis as he teased him about his girlfriend.

"Presea is busy looking after the son of some very responsible parents." Genis rebutted as he narrowed his eyes at Lloyd.

"So it's just the three of us on the roof star gazing, just like in the past!" Colette exclaimed happily, not understanding the sarcasm behind Genis' word.

However, Genis was used to Colette's one-tracked mind and also turned his head upwards. "Star gazing, huh?"

Lloyd was looking at some of the other constellations Kratos pointed out to him during his last week in Aselia before departing with Derris Kharlan as he thought of Colette's word and felt Colette and Genis lying down next to him. None of them said anything as they looked at the stars above, each thinking of the past.

Lloyd himself was thinking of the time when the three of them was looking up at the night sky from the roof of the inn in Hima during the Journey of Regeneration, when he still didn't know Kratos was his father, when Colette was thinking about her supposed death the next day, when both him and Genis naively believed that their world would be saved and Colette would become a full angel and regained her voice among other things and the two of them and Colette would be going home with Professor Raine or start finding a way to help Sheena save her world the next day.

"You know, Lloyd, the main character of the day is supposed to be downstairs socializing with his friends and family right now." Genis said after fifteen minutes, breaking the comfortable silence.

"I know." Lloyd sighed and started to get up, deciding that his 'brooding time' was over and he should at least show up downstairs lest Presea started going crazy from looking after his attention seeking son.

Colette and Genis also got up and followed Lloyd back to the party hall. Lloyd looked around and saw Zelos having a nervous expression and trying to charm his way through as he stood between Sheena and Seles as the two of them glared at each other, probably busy persuading them he didn't need them fighting and creating another hole in the wall of his manor. Lloyd heard Genis snickered at the sight and mumbled something that sounded like 'serves him right' followed by Colette lightly chiding him for his comment.

He then saw his adoptive father, Dirk, chatting and most likely exchanging notes on carving and black smith with Altessa, the only other dwarf invited to the party, and Kate, Sherra, Zelos and Sheena's nine year old daughter, and Alice, Regal's twelve year old adoptive daughter, chatting on the couch. He was walking to his and Zelos' sons to relieve Presea and Frank from babysitting the attention seeking little monsters when he felt it.

He felt a strange foreboding that made the hair on the back of his neck stand. He vaguely heard a voice from the back of his head saying something to him, the voice sounded familiar and he was sure he had heard it before, as the voice started growing louder he remembered who the voice belonged to.

Without wasting another moment, he dashed towards the towards the cupboard he put his weapons into when the party started and ignored the cries of Colette and Genis asking him what happened. Right now the only voice he could heard was the voice in his head, the voice he hadn't heard for the past twelve years, the voice that belonged to the King of Summon Spirit, Origin.

_Hurry, it's Sheena's amethyst ring!_ Heeding Origin's warning, Lloyd immediately sprinted towards the group of Zelos, Sheena and Seles after he grabbed his weapons, the Material Blade that consisted of Flameberge, the sword he received from Kratos, and Vorpal Sword, the sword he received from Dirk.

"Sheena! Throw away your amethyst ring! Everyone! Protect the children!" He shouted as he neared the group.

"Wha-"

"NOW!" Everyone started following Lloyd's order and began ushering the children behind them while Sheena grabbed the amethyst ring from one of her hidden pockets and threw it to a corner of the hall, away from all the people in the manor.

Zelos pushed both Sheena and Seles behind him as Lloyd stopped in front of them and held up his swords together and let the red and blue swords merge into a two handed purple sword, the Eternal Sword. Just then something came out of the stone of the ring, Lloyd briefly saw some dark mist and a flash of yellow before an explosion occurred. Lloyd quickly channeled Origin's power through the Eternal Sword and erected a powerful shield.

Judging from the sound produced from the blast, it was supposed to be a large scale explosion. However, luckily, due to Origin's warning and Lloyd and Sheena's fast reaction, Lloyd was able to confine the area of explosion to only the corner of the Wilder mansion and no one was hurt.

After Origin told him it's safe to lower the barrier, Lloyd lowered his sword, letting it split back into Flameberge and Vorpal Sword, while Genis used Wind Blade to clear up the smoke. After the smoke was cleared up, they saw a very huge hole sitting in the corner of the manor.

"Is everyone okay?" Lloyd asked as he turned around to examine the crowd.

Zelos was making sure Seles' sickness wasn't showing up due to the sudden stress. Sheena was rushing towards her crying son. Kate was hugging both Sherra and Alice while muttering soothing words to them. Dirk and Altessa were standing before the group of girls. Genis was supporting Frank who nearly fell due to the explosion (although Lloyd erected a shield, they could still feel the wind resulted from the explosion). Presea and Colette were carrying the crying Zavyer, Sheena and Zelos' three year old son, and Kraden, Lloyd and Colette's four year old son, respectively.

After Seles reassured Zelos that yes, she was fine and no, she wasn't going to fall down anytime soon at least five times, Zelos finally decided that his younger sister (who actually looked older than him now) was okay and turned around to examine the damage.

"Dammit, I thought I successfully prevented Sheena and Seles from creating another hole and now this happened." Zelos said after he saw the large hole in the corner of his manor.


	3. The Rogue Summon Spirit

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia.

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**Chapter 2: The Rogue Summon Spirit**

_~ 26 days ago ~_

Standing in the middle of the explosion site while listening to Lloyd and Sheena's hushed conversation in another corner of the manor, Presea couldn't help but feel what happened yesterday was familiar. Not that she had ever seen or heard of the pact ring of Summon Spirit exploding before, but that yellow flash that appeared just before the explosion... it felt familiar.

She looked out from the hole left by the explosion to the city of Meltokio and just in time saw the sun rising. The last few hours passed by in a frenzy of activities. Moments after the explosion, most of the adults started fussing around the children, the only exception being Lloyd, Zelos and Genis. Lloyd stood pasted on the ground while looking intently at the ring that was sitting innocently in the middle of the little crater created by the explosion site as if afraid it's going to suddenly move and attack him. Zelos talked with Sebastian about the state of the manor and reporting to the King or something like that and Geins led Frank to the couch to let him rest.

After the children finally slept, soldiers showed up in the doorway of the Wilder Manor inquiring about the situation. After a not-so-thorough report from Zelos, Sheena asked them if anything else happened in the city. The soldiers told them that the only other happenings in the hours after the explosion were a missing boy, a dead woman in the slums and two dead soldiers. From the crime scene, it seems that the boy murdered his own mother with a sword and fled Meltokio after killing the soldiers guarding the gate with the same sword and lowered the gate. They didn't know if those accidents were linked to the explosion but Presea decided to store the details in her brain for later use.

After the soldiers left, Lloyd announced that whatever caused the explosion wasn't in the vicinity anymore and only after that did Sheena cautiously picked up the amethyst ring. Zelos suggested that since it's already past midnight it's best for them to go to sleep and discuss what happened the next day, all the while glancing at Seles, who was starting to look pale but refused to go to rest.

Noticing Zelos' intention, Colette also said that her father, who had been resting on the couch and was looking quite weary since Genis led him to it, and herself also needed rest and it's best to call the night. After setting up night shift – not that they really need to, but it never hurt to be cautious – all the people went to, or tried to, sleep.

Presea was taking the last shift and had been standing in the crater trying her best to remember where she had had this similar feeling for the past hour. Every time she got closer to recalling the exact memory, she felt immeasurable fear building up within her and started to shudder violently and became lost in her own world. Every time she did that, Colette would tap on her shoulder or hug her and chased away her uneasy feelings.

Minutes after Presea started her shift, both Lloyd, Colette, Zelos and Sheena walked out from their bedroom, the former three never really did need to sleep due to their angel status and the last too stressed to have a quality sleep. It appeared that Sheena and Lloyd were discussing about the possible cause of the accident while Zelos was just being Zelos and was trying his best to charm his way through Colette and Presea, not that he ever succeeded. But Presea understood that that was just Zelos' way to lessen the tense environment and Sheena also understood that, that's why even though she could hear every words coming out of her husband's mouth, she did nothing to stop him.

Another two hours passed and the party could be seen having a quiet breakfast with Zelos occasionally leaving a flirting comment here and there to break the tension and Colette replying cheerfully and Genis and Kate rebutting him. Finally after a while the children started chatting to each other and everything became normal again, like last night's accident never occurred. It was after breakfast that Lloyd, Colette, Genis, Sheena, Zelos and Presea gathered in the dining room to finally discuss what happened the previous night with the others spending their time in the living room.

"So Lloyd, why did you know the ring's going to explode?" Genis asked.

"It's Origin. He warned me and that's when I rushed to grab my weapons." Lloyd said.

"Hunny, do you really think it wise not to throw away all your pact rings?" Zelos asked worriedly.

"For the last time, the rings are safe!" Sheena snapped at her husband irritatedly, it was like the hundredth time she had to reassure Zelos that her other rings weren't going to suddenly explode.

"Lloyd, did Origin tell you what happened?" Presea asked, deciding to butt in before Sheena and Zelos got into another heated argument.

"Actually, about that, he told me he was busy doing some sealing and said to ask Shadow about it." Lloyd replied.

"Seriously? Did he really tell us to get our answer from that one word spirit? I bet even Gnome would do a better job, oh I know, maybe we could ask Volt." Zelos snickered.

"Yeah, I see where this is coming, after all, I'm sure you and Gnome are on the same frequency. Or we can have you translate Volt's word while we wait outside." Genis snickered, earning a glare from Zelos.

"We have been talking about that, and..." Lloyd trailed off as he looked at Sheena.

Taking that as her cue, Sheena took out a paper seal and hold it in front of her. "I call upon the maiden of the mist. I summon thee, come, Undine!"

A burst of water appeared mid air and after the water disappeared, Undine, the Summon Spirit of Water, could be seen floating. Before Sheena could say anything, Undine nodded and started talking. "I know what you are going to ask, pact maker. We of the Summon Spirits all felt the distress emitted by Shadow ten hours ago."

"So something really happened to Shadow making his pact ring to explode..." Genis muttered.

"That is not correct, young half elf." Undine said as she turned to look at Genis. "I am not sure about the explosion, but we knew Karas used the pact ring of darkness as a passage to Aselia."

"Karas?" Colette asked.

Undine nodded at Colette. "Karas, the Summon Spirit of Darkness."

"Huh? But isn't that Shadow dude the Summon Spirit of Darkness?" Zelos asked.

"Yes. Similar to how Luna and Aska both being the Summon Spirits of Light, Shadow and Karas are both Summon Spirits of Darkness and the two of them shared a special link like Luna and Aska." Undine replied.

"But why didn't we have to fight both Shadow and Karas when we made the pact with Shadow?" Sheena asked.

Before Undine could answer Sheena's question, the room suddenly became darker despite the sun still shining brightly outside the window and the party stood up in alarm. Dark mist started gathering and after a while Shadow stood on the floor next to the floating Undine.

"Sealed... rest..." Shadow said with his signature dissembled voice.

Undine nodded at Shadow and turned towards the party. "Shadow just informed us that Origin finished sealing up the link between him and Karas and is currently resting. And to answer your previous question, Karas was a... lost Summon Spirit."

"Lost? You mean he couldn't find his way home?" Colette asked as she tilted her head to her side.

"She... betrayed..." Shadow answered.

"As Shadow said, Karas is a she and she is one of the Unique Summon Spirits." Undine supplied. "It happened ten thousand years ago, when Derris Kharlan first arrived and planted the Giant Kharlan Tree on Aselia. It was recorded that Ratatosk sealed up the passage that connects Niflheim, the Underword, and Aselia. However, what was unrecorded was the fight between the people on Aselia and the demons from Nilfheim to drive them back to the demonic realm before the sealing commenced." Undine motioned the party to take a seat.

After the party reseated, Undine continued. "The war was fought with three Summoners, six Unique Summon Spirits and troops of people from various race. For the first twenty years, we were winning the war without too much casualties. Then one of the Summoners was killed, releasing his pacts with the Summon Spirits of Light and Darkness . Both Luna and Shadow retreated from the war as not being a Unique Summon Spirit, they couldn't act on their own without a pact maker.

People from the Summoner Clan deemed it necessary to have another Summoner form pacts with the Summon Spirits of Light and Darkness again to help with the war. However, before the Summoner Clan could nominate the next candidate for the pacts, Karas appeared in the middle of the meeting between the elders of the Summoner Clan and killed all of them. The only reason Karas didn't destroy the whole Summoner Clan was Verius sensing the distress Shadow felt through his link with Karas and Verius teleported to the scene and protected the survivors of the Summoner Clan."

As Undine described the betrayal act of Karas, Presea swore she could see the shadowy tendrils surrounding Shadow started moving slower and Shadow shrink a bit in size, as if in pain or feeling sad. For some reason, Presea wanted to reach out to Shadow and comfort him as she knew what it felt like to lose a sister.

Then she remembered what she had been trying to recall since last night. "The yellow flash from the ring... it's a demon from Niflheim..." She muttered.

Everyone looked at Presea and Undine nodded at her. "Yes. Somehow the demons formed an alliance with Karas and even without having an active pact, Karas helped the demons to fight back. We didn't know what it was the demons promised Karas, but there was nothing else we could do. The battle turned fiercer and finally ended when we drove all the demons back to Niflheim nearly two hundred years later."

"Tw- two hundred years!?" Lloyd exclaimed.

"Lloyd, I know it sounds amazing, but if you recall the history, the Ancient Kharlan War was fought for nearly a millennium before Mithos put a stop to it." Genis said.

"Before Ratatosk sealed the passage connecting Niflheim, Origin forced Karas to sleep and sealed her into a crystal-"

"Why not just kill her?" Zelos interrupted.

"Summon Spirits cannot be killed. Like Centurions, even if you managed to kill a Summon Spirit, they would just rebirth inside their own temple with all their past memories intact." Undine replied.

"So it's like the seal Mithos did on Origin using dad's life?" Lloyd asked.

"No. That was a different seal, the seal Mithos had on Origin allowed him to still draw energy from Origin and Origin was aware of the happenings in the outside world, he just cannot take any action. The seal on Karas is one that can only be performed by another Summon Spirit and it forces the Summon Spirit to sleep, making it impossible to call upon their power and the sealed Spirit was cut off from the outside world.

And as I was saying just now, we sealed her into a crystal. Another two Unique Summon Spirits, Gremlin's Lair, the Summon Spirit of Despair, and Pluto, the Summon Spirit of Death and Afterlife, were placed to guard the crystal that sealed Karas and to oversee the demons in Neflheim before Ratatosk sealed up the passage."

"Whoa, whoa, wait. You mean there isn't just one, but three more Summon Spirits?" Zelos asked.

"I have never heard of them either..." Sheena muttered.

"That is not surprising, the original knowledge was lost when the Summoner Clan was destroyed during the Ancient Kharlan War four thousand years ago." Undine explained.

"So dad and Yuan knows about it?" Lloyd asked.

"No. The existence of the three Unique Summon Spirits in Niflheim was forbidden knowledge and only the acting chief and vice chief of the Summoner Clan had access to the knowledge. Not even the heroes of the Ancient Kharlan War knew." Undine said.

"You have been talking about this Unique Summon Spirit for a while now, what exactly is it?" Colette asked.

"It's a Summon Spirit that can think and act on their own without a pact maker." Undine explained.

"I don't get it, can't all the Summon Spirits think and act on their own?" Lloyd asked.

"Ratatosk..." Shadow answered..

Lloyd turned to Shadow and thought about what he knew of Ratatosk. "Oh I see now, thanks Shadow."

Genis, Sheena and Zelos blinked at Lloyd. "You understand Shadow's one word answer?" Genis asked.

"Lloyd is more of a practical person and Shadow just gave an example of a Unique Summon Spirit." Presea explained. This time the trio all turned to look at Presea.

"So who else is a Unique Summon Spirit?." Colette said and the party quickly turned their attention back to the Summon Spirit of Water.

"Aska, Karas, Maxwell, Origin, Verius, Ratatosk, Gremlin's Lair, Pluto and Martel."

"But I thought you said there were six?" Zelos asked.

"At the time of the war, we only knew of Maxwell, Origin, Verius, Ratatosk, Gremlin's Lair and Pluto as Unique Summon Spirits. We only knew Aska is one after Karas' independent act and Martel is a new Summon Spirit." Undine replied.

"Oh, okay then." Colette said.

"Any more questions?" Undine asked as she looked around the party.

"Umm... so why did Karas suddenly came out of the ring again?" Lloyd asked.

"From what Undine have been telling us so far, Karas was sealed up with Gremlin's Lair being the seal guardian and Pluto overseeing the demons in Niflheim." Genis concluded and looked at Presea and continued. "So from there, I would think something happened and Karas woke up and he used the link between her and Shadow to travel from Niflheim to Aselia, at the same time bringing along some demons with him." When Genis finished, everyone was looking at him.

"At least we don't need Raine to explain everything now that her baby brother has grown up." Zelos muttered.

"Yes, you are mostly correct, young half elf." Undine said and nodded towards Genis.

"One..." Shadow said.

"So Karas only brought one demon with him." Lloyd said. "Does that mean the amethyst ring can now act as a passage between Niflheim and Ase- what? Why are you all looking at me like that?" Lloyd saw everyone looking at him with a bewildered expression, except Colette and Presea, with the former beaming at him and the latter staring at him with an unreadable expression.

"Sometimes I really want to open your head and see what makes up your mind, bud." Zelos said as he shook his head.

"No, Zelos, don't repeat what happened just now before sis, she really would cut him up to have a look inside." Genis faked a horrified expression as he thought of Raine getting into her Ruin Mode at Lloyd.

Ignoring the bantering between the group of friends, Undine answered Lloyd's question. "Don't worry, Eternal Swordsman, like I said a while ago, Shadow came here to inform us that Origin just sealed the link between Karas and him. Even if not, Karas could only bring demons without a physical body with her as no one with a physical body could travel the realm of Summon Spirit."

"Okay. But what about Gremlin's Lair and Pluto?" Colette asked.

"We don't have the means to communicate with those in the demonic realm, so we are not sure what happened to them." Undine replied.

"Then why put them there? Isn't it risky without being able to talk to them?" Sheena asked.

"Strong... " Shadow said.

Undine nodded at Shadow's words. "If I am to compare, I will say Gremlin's Lair has power that rival Verius and Pluto was only second to Origin. Since the two of them are the Summon Spirits of Despair and Death and Afterlife, they became even stronger when placed within the demonic realm, like how I am stronger when fighting in an area full of water."

"I see. Like how Corrine was able to reborn into Verius due to the hearts in people getting stronger." Sheena said.

"Correct..." Shadow said.

"So what did Karas want to do coming here with a demon?" Lloyd askd.

"We believe she seeks to open the door to Niflheim. Pact maker, Eternal Swordsman, please make haste and protect the seal in Ginnungagap." Undine said and she and Shadow disappeared. Everyone blinked at the suddenness of Undine and Shadow's departure. Silence fell as each person in the room thought of what they just learned from the Summon Spirits.

"A demon without a physical body... a missing boy... !" Presea gasped as she linked the two together. "That demon took over the boy and murdered his mother and the soldiers!"

"That's horrible! Lloyd, we need to hurry and stop him!" Colette cried out.

"Colette's right, we will go in ten minutes. Make what ever preparation you need to make." Lloyd said and everyone left their room to prepare for the chase.

Zelos went to make arrangements with Sebastian about the repair of the damaged manor and to look after his kids while Colette and Sheena went to see to their children. Genis told Alice to stay in the manor to wait for Regal to come and fetch her later in the afternoon and Presea went to say goodbyes to Kate and Altessa, who were leaving for their home. Lloyd went to tell Frank and Dirk about the general situation and told then to look after Kraden when they were gone. After ten minutes, the group left the Wilder Mansion and started towards the city gate.

"Sheena, could you tell where they went?" Lloyd asked as they looked out the the fields from the city gate of Meltokio.

Sheena examined the surroundings before finally answering Lloyd. "No. It seems they have been doing a great job covering their tracks."

"Right. Then it's time for us to split." Lloyd said.

"Split? But Lloyd, aren't we just going to make sure Emil is okay?" Colette asked.

"No. Not just Emil, there's also Richter we need to protect." Presea answered for Lloyd.

Sheena nodded. "Although Emil is Ratatosk, Verius did split them into two, the second going into the core on Richter's forehead, not to mention the one currently holding up the seal is Richter."

"So there's two possible targets and the death of either one of them will weaken the seal." Genis concluded.

"Guys, remember there are two enemies: the demon possessed boy and Karas, they could have split up like we are going to and attack both Emil and Richter." Lloyd said.

"Right, so maybe all of us need to fight. Who's going with who then?" Zelos asked.

"Sheena, Genis and Presea go to Emil's place while Colette, Zelos and I go to Ginnungagap." Lloyd said and called out his wings. Following Lloyd's example, Colette and Zelos also unfurled their wings.

"But Lloyd, can you get to the Ginnungagap without Emil's help?" Genis asked.

Lloyd nodded. "Origin said the Eternal Sword can also do the job, though it'll be easier if Emil's the one to open the gate." Then he turned to Sheena. "Sheena, you still have the EC, right?" Seeing Sheena's nod, Lloyd continued. "The three of you sail to Palmacosta with the EC while the three of us fly to the Otherwordly Gate."

"Wait Lloyd, buddy, you kidding right? I thought we were just flying to the edge of the island then we are also going by sea. See? I got another EC here." Zelos said as he held up a wing pack containing another Elemental Cargo.

"No Zelos, we may have two ECs, but we only have one Undine." Lloyd explained. "And we aren't just flying straight to the Otherwordly Gate, we will be heading north till we reach Mizuho and we'll borrow some rheairds there."

"Oh man, that's still a long flight... I mean, from here to Mizuho without rheairds? That's just crazy." Zelos said.

"There isn't any other way, do you want to fly over the sea for twelve hours straight or alternate between walking, resting on solid grounds, and flying?" Lloyd said.

"Don't worry Zelos, if you are too tired I can always carry you." Colette chirped.

"Colette, you are such an angel~" Zelos said in a sing-song voice and then gasped as Sheena elbowed his gut hard.

"Any more questions?" Lloyd asked and looked around the group of six. "Then let's go." With that, the three angels started flying north and the other three started towards the west.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Some may have noticed that I added Tales of Phantasia to the disclaimer, the reason being that Gremlin's Lair and Pluto are Summon Spirits within that game. I have looked up the information on them and I found that although the two of them are Summon Spirits, they are also referred to as denizen and King of the Underworld. The difference in the number of Summon Spirits in TOS and TOP is actually one of the fact I took into account when I planned out this story.

Oh and I got my first review! So here's my little corner for replying the review -

**Strawberry Eggs** – Thanks for your long and descriptive review. I love reviews that give me opinions! You're right, some of the dialogues are quite awkward, but then there's the problem that sometimes I can't seem to be able to find the most suitable word and decided to just stick to the word my mind provided at the time being, like the word 'frequent'. I'm more of a formal person so I get it that I tend to use 'big' words even though the situation didn't require it... I myself am someone that just read and never worried about the writing style, so I am afraid don't really understand the stuff about being rough and rushed pacing, but I will try to make my story look better. I am glad you like my plot and the humor bit I tried to put into the story. Someone pointed out to me a while ago that I couldn't do humor fics and so I decided to try it out by putting funny bits here and there, and Zelos and Sheena just make it so easy.


	4. The Seal

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Seal**

_~ 22 days ago ~_

It was a long trip from Meltokio to Mizuho and true to Lloyd's word, the three angels had been alternating between flying (mostly), walking and resting (nearly none). When they finally arrived in Mizuho on the fourth day, Zelos was so tired that he nearly crash landed and told Lloyd bluntly that 'angel or not, I am going to have my beauty sleep and don't you dare wake me up till tomorrow' and disappeared into the chief's house, the house he and Sheena stayed in whenever they came to Mizuho.

It seems a bit of an overkill seeing as it's only a little past noon, but Lloyd can see the point of resting for the day. They didn't know the means of transportation of the demon and rogue Summon Spirit and they might or might not have already reached their destinations. However, no matter whether the enemies already reached their destination or not, tomorrow they were going to Ginnungagap, a place full of monsters, or at least it was when they last went there, and it would do them no good if they were already exhausted when they reached there.

After informing the vice chief of the situation, he lent them three fully charged rheairds and Lloyd and Colette were given a guest room to rest for the day. It wasn't like they needed to sleep, but it would help for them to rest their mind, something Lloyd supposed Zelos was doing.

Early next morning the three angels left Mizuho and continued their journey to the Ginnungagap. Having rheairds make the traveling much easier and faster and they managed to arrive at the Otherwordly Gate the night of the same day. Holding out the material blade, Lloyd once again merged the swords into the Eternal Sword and called forth Origin's power to open the gate to the rift between the worlds. Once within Ginnungagap, the three angels began making way to the deepest part.

"Lloyd, can you feel it? ... I don't know how to describe it... but something's wrong." Colette said as a feeling of unease started building up in her and she unconsciously walking closer to Lloyd and held his hand.

"I get your meaning, Colette. This place... it's the same as when we came last time, but somehow it feels... different." Lloyd said as he pulled Colette even closer to him to protect her from whatever danger that might suddenly come up.

"I feel like I'm being sucked dry, you know?" Zelos commented.

"Yes, I think that's the closest description." Colette said.

"And this place is more dreary than when we last came... there isn't any monsters here, and last time we need to fight our way through so hard." Zelos said.

They continued their way and as they got deeper, the feeling of being sucked increased and they saw monster corpses along the way. However, no matter how deep they went, they didn't encounter another living being and the three angels were starting to feel tired despite having a long and nice rest last night.

"Do you think the monsters were killed by the demon?" Colette asked.

"Not sure, I didn't see any wounds on them." Zelos said. "What do you think, bud?" He directed the question to Lloyd, but Lloyd seems to be deep in thought and didn't hear Zelos' question.

"Bud?" Still no response.

"Lloyd?" Colette asked and tugged on his hand, successfully gaining Lloyd's attention.

"Huh? Sorry, Origin was telling me that something weird is happening up ahead, but he can't really tell what that is as the mana here is being sucked up and is getting thiner and thiner nearer to the door to Nilfheim." Lloyd said.

"No mana? So that's the cause of the monsters' death? What's sucking up the mana anyway?" Zelos asked.

Lloyd furrowed his brow as he tried to tell Origin's exact words to Colette and Zelos. "He said this is Ratatosk's doing, something about drawing out mana from all living things, and he's starting from those nearest to him. But he didn't think that's the reason the monsters died because that contradicts with Ratatosk's purpose."

"Oh I remember. Ratatosk said he wants to return the world to like before Derris Kharlan arrived, when none of the living beings required mana to live." Colette said.

"Wait, I am starting to remember now... it's something about a New Law..." Lloyd trailed off as he tried to remember the events twelve years ago.

"Who cares what he said all those years ago." Zelos said tiredly. "So maybe the monsters are really killed by the demon. But if we don't need mana to live in the beginning, then why am I feeling so tired right now..."

"Angels are beings that are based on mana and Cruxis Crystal draws in mana from the surrounding, so it isn't like we are getting more tired than we are supposed to, just that the mana our angelic strength requires takes longer to replenish... well, I don't understand what I was talking about but at least that's what Origin said." Lloyd shrugged as he said the last par.

"It just means that we are becoming normal humans with little angelic strength but since we have been angels for too long, we already got too used to the normal expenditure of a full power angel and now we are feeling extra tired because of the lack of angelic strength to support that normal expenditure." Zelos explained.

"Zelos you are so clever!" Colette exclaimed and clapped her hands together.

"Why thank you my little angel~" Zelos said and winked at her.

"Ermmm... expentidure?" Lloyd asked.

"... it's expenditure. EX-PEN-DI-TURE. It means usage. For crying out loud, Lloyd, you are thirty-one already! Go brush up your vocab!" Zelos cried out frustratingly.

Lloyd's face was red with embarrassment. "Zelos, don't you pull a 'Professor Raine' on me. What's it to you anyway? You have been acting weird since we came here."

"I don't know... maybe I am feeling too tired..."

"You are worried about Sheena, right?" Colette asked. "There is no need to worry. Presea and Genis are with her and Sheena herself is also very strong. And once they find Emil and Marta, Emil will protect her."

"Thanks Colette, but you do realize they are going to protect Emil, not the other way round, right?" Zelos smiled tiredly at Colette's attempt at cheering him up.

* * *

The rest of their journey was spent in silence so as to reserve their strength. As they neared the final room, they saw that the door was opened. Lloyd remembered Ratatosk saying that he was to seal the room up so no one can get near the door to Nilfheim. If the door was unsealed, then the enemy or enemies came here after all. He looked at Colette and Zelos and knew they were both thinking the same.

He nodded at the other two and the three of them burst into the room with their weapons drawn, or wings unfurled in Colette's case.

"Tiger blade!" Lloyd jumped up and brought his swords above his head and swing them down heavily at the shadowy figure standing in the room. The figure turned around and blocked his blow.

"Lloyd? Why are you here?" The figure asked.

"Wha-" Lloyd finally took a good look at the figure and realized it was Richter. He quickly jumped back.

"Richter? What are you doing?"

Richter narrowed his eyes. "You aren't making any sense. And I see the Chosen of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla are with you."

"Lloyd look!" Lloyd looked back at Colette and saw her pointing at something. He looked at the direction in which Colette was pointing at and saw a boy lying on the ground on a small pool of dried blood. Lloyd gasped as he rushed to the boy and knelt beside him with Colette following close behind.

"You know that boy?" Richter asked in an alarming tone.

Zelos shrugged and explained. "He was possessed by a demon and we think that his goal is to either kill you or Emil. So here we are."

"Zelos! The boy's not dead yet!" Lloyd shouted and Zelos quickly got to the boy's side. Colette held onto the boy's hand as Zelos started to cast healing spells.

"Healing Stream!" A magic circle appeared underneath the boy as blue light washed over him and some of his already closed wounds started to heal. His breathing became calmer though he showed no sign of waking up soon.

"I don't know how, but he opened the door to this room and tried to kill me. Are you sure it's wise to heal him?" Richter asked.

"The boy's innocent! He's just being possessed, we can't just leave him to die!" Lloyd said without taking his eyes off the boy.

"What about the demon that possessed him, what if the first thing he did when he wake up is attack you?"

"Then I am willing to risk it if it meant I can save him." Lloyd answered.

"I see. So that's the man that Origin decided to put his faith into." Richter said as he walked towards Lloyd and the others.

Lloyd was confused at the half elf's words, sure they didn't know each other well seeing as how they were always fighting the other to death whenever they met, but that comment just now was so weird. "Wha-" Just then Lloyd noticed something shining on the ground next to the boy. He had been focusing on the boy so much that he only saw the shining pieces of red gems on the ground next to some shattered pieces of stone.

Lloyd widened his eyes as he remembered what those were and quickly turned around and brought up his sword only to get tossed away by the force of Richter's blow. He hit the far wall and felt air being forced out of his lung and dropped to the ground.

"Lloyd!" Colette and Zelos shouted. Zelos quickly placed himself between Colette, who was still holding onto the boy while kneeling on the ground, and Richter with his sword pointing at the half elf.

"What the hell you think you are doing!?" Zelos shouted angrily at Richter.

"Zelos... he... the demon..." Lloyd said as he got up from the ground while coughing out blood.

Richter spared a brief glance at Lloyd. "What gave me away? Was it something I said?"

"Tha- that's Ratatosk's core and... is that the Sacred Stone?" Colette said as she saw what Lloyd just saw.

"Ah I see. Next time I need to remember to dispose of the evidence more thoroughly." Richter said.

"Who are you?" Zelos asked.

Richter turned back to Zelos and answered. "If I tell you, that's just going to kill the fun."

"You bastard! Possessing others and hurting their friends isn't fun!" Zelos shouted.

"You consider this man your friend? Funny, when I looked through his memory all I see was him trying to kill you guys." Richter said as he tilted his head to the side. "But I guess you are right, it's not funny possessing others. Although I have been doing it for the past few days, it's not comfortable having to confine myself in such a crammed space."

The three angels watched in horror as Richter reversed his hold on his sword and had the tip of it pointing towards his heart. "Guess it's time to say goodbye to your 'friend' then, false angels."

As Richter finished his sentence he started plunging the sword towards his heart only to be interrupted when Lloyd tackled him from behind. The two swordsmen tumbled to the ground and Zelos quickly walked up and kicked away the half elf's weapons. Moments later both Lloyd and Zelos had Richter pinned to the ground. Once they firmly held the half elf onto the ground, they saw a blur of yellow and white came out of Richter and dived towards Colette.

"Colette!" Lloyd and Zelos shouted.

Colette heard Lloyd and Zelos's warning and saw the demon coming at her, but she was too stunned to move as she realized what, or who, the demon was. "Why?" Was the only word that came out of her mouth before the demon entered her.

Lloyd and Zelos could only watch in horror as the blur of yellow and white entered Colette's body. For a moment, Colette sat still on the ground and Lloyd and Zelos got up from the now unconscious Richter.

Time seemed to have stopped as Colette saw memories of the demon flashing in her mind, just like when Martel and Mithos possessed her all those years ago. She saw a city surrounded by fire, a sky tinted orange, glimpses of a very tall man with long white hair and very pale skin, a black bird that seems to be purely made of gas with blood red eyes, a swarm of small beasts bowing to that very tall man, a white legless beast with long arms attacking and finally a familiar blond with eyes that belonged to the dead. Then everything became dark and all Colette could feel was fear and despair.

_The core and the stone! Just touch them!_

"Colette? You still there?" Lloyd asked cautiously as he and Zelos left the now unconscious Richter approached the still Colette. Then Colette opened her eyes and smiled at them and Lloyd and Zelos let out the breaths they had been holding. However, that innocent smile suddenly became so twisted and sinister that Lloyd could only stare dumbly at his wife while Zelos started cursing.

"What is it? Think your wife look even prettier like this?" Colette asked and stood up.

"You bastard! Release Colette this instant!" Zelos shouted.

"You think-" Colette paused as she felt her left leg involuntarily moving towards her left. "What's the meaning of this?" She muttered as she looked down.

"Colette! You can still hear me, right? Fight back, don't let the demon control you!" Lloyd shouted.

Colette looked at Lloyd and Zelos with a look of irritation and held up her right hand. "You are annoying." She opened her fist and there was a glow in the middle of her palm. "Retribution."

Lloyd and Zelos suddenly felt some jelly like substance washing through their body and started to feel numb, they struggled for a while to regain control of their limbs to no avail and finally dropped to the ground, unable to move. "Dammit! Colette! Wake up!" Lloyd shouted.

"It feels so good to be able to use an angel's body! Now I really have full access to all his power!" Colette exclaimed delightfully as she flew towards the sealed door. Once she was in front of it, she turned around and looked at the struggling figures on the ground.

"Be glad I decided to let the two of you have the privilege to witness the grand moment of the King of Daemonium stepping through this door into the cursed world of Aselia!" The demon smiled that twisted smile that should never have appeared on Colette's face as she looked at Lloyd and Zelos.

"The seal! When?" Zelos gasped as he saw the door started trembling, as if someone was banging it from the other side.

"The three of you were just too fixated on that half elf friend of yours and the worthless human to notice the seal getting weaker and weaker." She then turned to the door and spread her arms to her sides.

"The cursed seal is already weakened! Come! My brethren! Use all your power to force open the door!" She shouted. The room began getting darker and colder and Lloyd and Zelos could only watch as the door slit became wider and wider at a very slow pace and then-

"Ahhhhh!" Colette screamed as Richter tackled her to the ground and pushed the pieces of the shattered Sacred Stone and Core of Ratatosk to her Cruxis Crystal. There was a red glow the contact point and Colette started thrashing around but Richter would have none of it and pinned her to the ground with his body, all the while maintaining the contact between the shattered pieces and the Cruxis Crystal.

After a while, Colette ceased her struggle and her whole body went limp under Richter. Lloyd and Zelos started regaining control of their body as the numb feeling began to subside. The two angels slowly stood up with the support of their swords. None of them said anything and suddenly Colette screamed. A mixture of black and dark purple mist started coming out from Colette's mouth.

The scream was so loud and shrill that Lloyd and Zelos had to let go of their weapons and covered their ears with their hands or their angelic hearing would make them deaf. Although without angelic hearing, Richter wasn't having it any better seeing as he was next to the screaming source. He ignored his body instinct telling him to cover up his ears and to get as far away from the screaming angel as he kept pinning down Colette's body and holding the shattered pieces in place.

The screaming finally ceased and the mist stopped coming out from Colette's mouth after what felt like an eternity. After a while, Colette opened her eyes and blinked at the man above her.

"Richter?" She began. "Wha-" She stopped abruptly when Richter lost his consciousness and collapsed onto her.

"Richter!" She sat up and laid Richter onto the ground. She looked around and saw Lloyd and Zelos.

"Hey, Colette, welcome back." Lloyd said with a weak smile.

"Yes. Lloyd." Colette replied her husband cheerfully while beaming at him.

"You really gave us quite the scare, little angel." Zelos said.

"I'm sorry Zelos, are you okay now?" Colette asked worriedly as she turned to look at Zelos.

"Now that's my Colette." Zelos flashed his trademark lady-killer smile towards Colette. "Hey bud, got some orange gels?" Zelos asked Lloyd.

Lloyd fished out some orange gels from his wing pack and passed them to Zelos. Zelos chewed on the recovery items and started to feel his mana replenishing. After he finished the last one Lloyd gave him, he started casting Healing Wind to heal them.

_The door!_

Colette whipped her head around and noticed that the door was still slowly opening. "Lloyd! The door!"

Lloyd also looked at the door in alarm and with some quick thinking, he picked up the pieces of Sacred Stone.

He then heard Origin's voice in his head. _The stone can't be used anymore. The demons can only be stopped if the other part of Ratatosk reseals the door or someone with a huge mana source uses another refined Sacred Stone to generate Holy Flames. However, you can use the power of the Eternal Sword to slow down the passage of time of the door. Be warned that due to the lack of mana in this area, I need to nearly exhaust all my mana to do so as I can't manipulate the mana in the environment like I used to for most of my other tasks. I will have to rest for at least a year before being able to talk to you again. The Eternal Sword will still retain it's power after I went into slumber, though not as much as when I am awake._

"Thanks Origin." Lloyd said as he once again merged his swords. He turned to Colette and Zelos. "Origin said the Eternal Sword can slow down the opening of the door. But we still need to find another Sacred Stone or have Emil come and seal the door." At Colette and Zelos' nod, Lloyd walked towards the door.

He stopped about a meter before it and raised the Eternal Sword so that the tip was pointing upwards and began channeling Origin's power. "Slow the passage of time of the door that connects our world and Niflheim!"

The purple sword started glowing, the glow became brighter and brighter. When the light became so bright that they needed to shut their eyes to avoid getting blind, the light shot towards the door and enveloped it. After a while, the light died down and Lloyd and the others opened their eyes again. They saw that the color of the door faded to a dull gray and it seemed to have stopped moving.

Lloyd lowered his swords after the Eternal Sword became the Material Blade again and started staggering. "Lloyd!" Colette and Zelos cried out and Colette rushed to Lloyd's side to support him with Zelos a step behind her.

_Something's coming from the door!_

"I am alright Colette, now we need to-" Lloyd was interrupted when Colette suddenly pushed him away. Just then a black spear came out of the quarter-way opened door and struck the ground Lloyd was just standing on.

"It's a regret that I can't be the first one to step out of the door." A deep male voice came from the other side of the door as the black spear disintegrated into thin air. "No matter, it's only a matter of time till the door is fully opened. I guess I will have my servants deal with the likes of you for the time being."

Colette flew to Lloyd's side again to help him stand while Zelos went to Richter's side and started pulling him away from the door as small identical beasts came out of it.

"It's alright, Colette, I am okay now. Protect the boy." Lloyd said and popped a miracle gel into his mouth. Colette nodded and flew to the boy and started casting.

"Resound! Magnificent singing voice. Holy Song!" Colette cried out as pink translucent feathers rose from the ground nearest to her and a pink ring of mana started spreading out from her to the edge of the room. The occupants in the room felt a boost in strength as they prepared for the coming battle.

"Colette! Zelos! You can't fight while protecting the others! Fall back to the entrance of the room and started casting spells!" Lloyd shouted as slashed at one of the beasts with Flameberge and blocked an attack from another beast with Vorpal Sword.

"Raging Beast!" Lloyd shouted as he did a spin slash and blasted the nearest four beasts away with a blue concentrated mana that took the form of a lion's head.

"Eruption!" Magmas erupted from the ground creating a large circular dome dealing fire damage to the some of the beasts and knocking them off their feet. However, both Lloyd and Zelos' attacks didn't do much damage as the beasts began getting up showing little to no damage. At the same time, small demons of different types started squeezing out of the door.

"Holy wings, gather here to reveal the Lord's will. Angel Feathers!" Three pink feathers came from Colette and surged through the air and hit a gas demon and annihilated it as it approaches Lloyd.

"There are too many, we can't defeat them all!" Zelos shouted, his voice carrying over the horde of demons.

"I know! The two of you go with the boy and Richter!" Lloyd shouted as he used Demonic Circle to repel the demons that were closing in on him.

"But Lloyd! What about you?" Colette asked worriedly even as she started to pick up the boy.

"Someone need to hold them back! Don't worry, I will think of something!" Lloyd replied as he twisted and dodged to the side and narrowly avoided a wolf demon from tearing his throat out with its sharp teeth.

"But-"

"We need to go, Colette! Lloyd's right, we will be much slower carrying someone!" Zelos told Colette as he draped the unconscious Richter over his shoulder and called out his wings.

Colette looked like she still wanted to protest and started opening her mouth-

_It's alright, I will go with him to make sure he's fine._

- and closed it. She nodded and Zelos saw was something translucent coming out of Colette and shot towards Lloyd. "Wha-"

"I'll explain later, we need to go now." Colette said as she held back the tears that were threatening to fall from her eyes and started flying away.

Zelos looked at Colette's retreating back and turned to look at Lloyd one final time. "Don't die on me, bud!" Then he also flew away.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Not much to say for this chapter... except that I hope Zelos wasn't too OOC in the first half of the chapter.

**Strawberry Eggs** – I think I get what you are talking about. In the first chapter, it was quite difficult for me to write the part about the ritual in Niflheim and about the interaction between Lloyd and Colette... I said I am not good at humor, but I think I will suck at romance scenes, not that there's any romance there anyway. So maybe from now on you will find the dialogue better than the first one, though maybe still some awkwardness here and there. As for the issue about Corrine and Verius, I thought Verius had always been a greater Summon Spirit, but he just lost his power due to people's heart getting weaker and weaker and can only reside in the world through Corrine. Now that you put it like that, maybe I just misunderstood the part about him from the sidequest in TOS... I have never played TOS2 (my knowledge of it are from other fanfics like Mystic Yoshie's Unreal Reality) so if there's anything about Corrine and Verius mentioned in the game, I am simply not aware of it.


	5. The Destroyed Core

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Destroyed Core**

_~ 20 days ago ~_

"Look! There is smoke rising up!" Genis pointed at a very thin trail of smoke in the direction of Palmacosta.

"Probability of the smoke being the result of a fire in Palmacosta: ninety nine percent." Presea said in a robotic voice. Although it's been a long time since she got rid of the parasitic effect her exphere had on her due to the Angelus Project, Presea still occasionally reverted back to her robotic self.

"Undine, we need to hurry!" Sheena shouted and the EC started accelerating.

The party of three had used nearly a day and a half just to get to the coastal area after they left Meltokio and they had been on the sea ever since. Even with the help of Undine, sailing through the sea on an EC was never the fastest way to travel and they were still miles from Palmacosta.

"Pact maker, this is the fastest I can go without heavily damaging the vehicle. At this speed we will arrive in another hour." Undine's voice said.

"Thanks, Undine." Sheena said.

She knew she was pushing it and though Undine didn't say anything, Sheena knew the Summon Spirit of Water was near her limit. Summon Spirit or not, it was a nearly impossible feat to sail a ship at sixty miles per hour nearly four and a half days nonstop. Not to mention an Elemental Cargo was never supposed to go over _thirty_ miles per hour. So not just Undine, but also the EC, were at their limit. Undine said she's sailing it without _heavily_ damaging it, but who knew what other damages the EC was going through. It was really a miracle that the EC could go this fast this many days without sinking.

As the EC got nearer to Palmacosta, they could see the city. Relief washed over them as they noticed the fire wasn't as large scale as they first thought, at least the buildings nearest to the shore didn't show any sign of burning. Once the EC parked, the party jumped to the shore and sprinted towards the site of fire following the direction of the smoke. Sheena called back Undine and didn't even bother storing the EC back into the wing pack as she didn't think anyone would even _think _to steal an EC that looked like it's going to sink any moment.

As the party rushed through the crowded street following the smoke, they noticed something weird. Although the walls of the building and the footpath were blackened, telling them that there was a fire here not too long ago, the buildings were intact and people were walking down the street of Palmacosta as if nothing weird was going on. The trio slowed to a stop as Sheena walked up to the nearest person strolling down the street, wanting to first understand the situation at hand.

"Excuse me, what is happening? Why isn't anyone concerned with the fire over there?" Sheena asked the man as she pointed at the trail of smoke.

"Oh, did you just came to Palmacosta?" The man asked.

"Yes, we were sailing in the sea when we noticed the smoke and decided to come and see if we can offer any help if there was really a fire." Sheena replied

"Thanks for coming then. Yes, there was a huge fire, it started three days ago, but most of it was put out by a strange lady in blue using some weird water magic." The man said as he gestured the blackened walls and footpaths. "There were people hurt by the fire but not much casualties though, I heard it's thanks to a passing by silver haired half elf."

Genis and Presea shared a look as they guessed the identities of the lady in blue and the silver haired half elf.

"What about the remaining fire?" Sheena asked.

"I'm not sure what the whole story is, but I heard that the lady in blue suddenly disappeared sometime last night and the fireman had been taking over to extinguish the remaining fire since then." The man said. "Again, I thanks for your concern on behalf of the citizens in Palmacosta travelers, but as you can see, everything is under control. If you knew some basic healing and still want to help, follow the blackened footpath and you will see a pseudo medical station where the injured were being tended to."

Sheena thanked the man for his information and the group of three resumed their walking, but this time to the pseudo medical station, hoping to catch a certain silver haired half elf, especially Genis, who was eager to see his sister after being separated for three months.

"Such a nice gentleman. He thanked Raine even though he knew she was a half elf." Genis said, happy at the thought of people in Palmacosta looking at half elf in a new light because of Raine's good deed.

For some reason, after all that's said and done, Palmacosta was one of the cities that still had a huge discrimination towards half elves, after Sybak and Meltokio. Genis and Raine had been traveling back and forth between the three cities for the past fourteen years hoping to change the way people in these cities think of half elves. It was a long process, but Genis could see people in the three cities starting to warm up to them, just never outright thanking them and especially praising them in front of some random travelers.

Presea nodded. "It's nice to see that the work of you and Raine finally bears fruit."

"Yeah, but we need to hurry to the medical station now, we can celebrate after all this is over." Sheena reminded them.

The further they walked down the path, they noticed the sea of people getting thinner and thinner. They also noticed that they were getting closer to the most damaged part of the city as almost none of the houses and buildings here were left untouched. Although some of them were still intact, nearly all of them suffered a significant degree of burning.

They saw Emil's and Marta's house, or what's left of it, and started to panic. They looked through the remains but couldn't find anything indicating the fate of the people dwelling in it and decided to check out the medical station and hoped that they would find them there.

When they finally arrived at the medical station, which they assumed to be the medical station due to the white flag with a large red cross hanging on it, Genis knew Raine had left already as he couldn't feel the mana signature of anything resembling a half elf in the vicinity. The party walked in nonetheless, hoping to offer as much help as they could and to learn more about what happened.

"Sheena! And Genis and Presea too!" A high pitched female voice exclaimed the moment the trio entered the building. They looked at the source of the voice and saw a nurse walking towards them.

"Marta! Thank Origin you are alright!" Sheena exclaimed as she recognized the nurse as their friend Marta Lualdi, or better known as Marta Castagnier these days.

"I guess I was lucky. I was taking Emily to the nursery on the other side of the town when the fire broke out." Marta said.

"So little Emily is also safe. What about Emil?" Sheena asked and saw a sad look overcame Marta when she mentioned her husband.

"Did something happen to him?" Presea asked.

"He-"

"Hey Marta! Doctor Marco asked for you in room two one six!" A male voice shouted, interrupting Marta.

"Okay!" Marta shouted back, then she turned to the trio. "I'm sorry, I need to get to work. Emil is in room one four three. My break is in another twenty minutes, we will talk then." Marta said apologetically and went back to work.

Shortly after Emil and Marta's marriage six years ago, the couple settled in Palmacosta and Marta got a job as a nurse in the Royal Palmacosta Hospital. Well, their first choice was Luin, as it was where Emil's family was, but the companies and organizations in Luin didn't have any shortage of helpers and they couldn't get a job. After they settled in Palmacosta, Emil joined the Palmacosta Army – it wasn't like they were going to war with anyone, but the government was just as paranoid as the King of Meltokio, one of the only two people in the world to think it's a good thing to have an army under their command in case anything happened – and had become the third commander of it recently.

Deciding that there wasn't anything else to do, the party went to Emil's room. When they entered the room they saw Emil lying on the bed. There was some burnt marks here and there but there seems to be nothing too serious. However, the breathing of Emil was too slow for a person suffering from burnt alone and had been recovering for the past few days. After they closed the door behind them, Tenebrae appeared out of thin air.

"Greetings, Sheena, Genis and Presea." Tenebrae said.

"Tenebrae! What happened to you and Emil?" Genis asked as he noticed the Centurion of Darkness looked exhausted, and the dark fur of the panther like Centurion somehow lost some of it's darkness.

"I am not sure myself, I only know that Lord Ratatosk called for his Centurions last night when I suddenly felt an energy drain." Tenebrae answered and saw the trio shared a look amongst themselves.

"Energy drain? Is that somehow related to Aqua suddenly disappearing?" Sheena asked.

Tenebrae looked at the summoner with slight alarm. "How do you know about Aqua?"

"We heard that there was a lady in blue helping out with the fire with some kind of strange water magic till she suddenly disappeared last night and we assumed that lady in blue to be the Centurion of Water." Presea explained.

"I see. Yes, that's right. All the Centurions felt a distress signal from Lord Ratatosk last night and the Centurions, except myself, lost all their power and went back to core form. Lady Marta told me that Lord Emil suddenly fainted just before I arrived." Tenebrae said.

"If the other Centurions lost so much power that they went back to core form, then why didn't you? And what do you mean when you arrived? Weren't you always near Emil? And why are you-"

"One question at a time." Tenebrae said.

The half elf blinked. "Right... sorry about that... so why didn't you go back to core form?"

"I believe it is because I am the Centurion that had been spending the longest with Lord Emil that I somehow grew stronger than the other Centurions."

Genis nodded. "Where were you when Emil fainted?"

"I was tracking down the cause of the fire with Raine when I felt the distress sig-"

"What? You mean you just left Raine alone to chase down some criminals!" Genis cried out, face red with anger at the thought of the Centurion of Darkness just up and left his sister alone.

"Calm down Genis, I'm sure it wasn't Tenebrae's intention and Raine will be fine, she is very smart and knows healing spell. I'm sure she can look after herself." Presea said and placed her hand on her boyfriend's shoulder.

"I know... I just..." Genis trailed off.

Tenebrae stared at Genis apologetically. "I am sorry Genis, all I could do was warn Raine that I need get back to Lord Emil's side. After I returned, I couldn't go back to her lest I also lost all my power and revert back to core's form like the others. However, I can assure you that we weren't in any place dangerous when I left."

Deciding to break the tense atmosphere, Sheena asked her own question. "Where are the cores of the other Centurions now? Do we have to search all over the world for them again?"

Tenebrae shook his head. "They returned to Lord Emil's side. Lady Marta has them now."

"If she has them, then why didn't she hatch them? I thought hatching the Centurions will help Ratatosk regain his power?" Sheena asked.

"Lady Marta was only able to hatch them last time due to Lord Ratatosk's Core on her forehead giving her power. But as you all know, that was a fake and she lost that power when the memories of Lord Ratatosk within Lord Emil returned and took back the power."

"So you mean this time we have to wait for Emil to wake up to hatch the core, and not the other way round... but what about the world? I mean, are natural disasters going to happen around the world again?" Tenebrae nodded gravely at Sheena's question.

"That's..." Not knowing what to comment, Sheena groaned frustratingly.

"Genis, what's the other questions you were going to ask?" Presea asked.

Genis was also thinking about the problems of the Centurions in core form and managed to snap out of it when Presea suddenly directed the question to him and turned to Tenebrae. "Just one more. Why are you sometimes referring to Emil as Ratatosk and sometimes Ratatosk? I thought Emil couldn't go into 'Ratatosk mode' anymore..."

"It is true that ever since Verius split Lord Ratatosk into his physical and core form twelve years ago, we Centurions have been referring to Lord Ratatosk and Lord Emil as different entities. However, it is not commonly known that Lord Emil still retained part of Lord Ratatosk. Thus, we refer to him as Lord Ratatosk when Lord Ratatosk's personality resurfaced through him, though it has never happened before, as Lord Ratatosk promised to let Lord Emil live a life as a normal human." Tenebrae explained.

Sheena started linking the dots together and once again felt panic sweeping through her. "So you were saying that the distress signal was sent by the one in Ginnungagap?"

"There were actually two distress signals. The first one was sent by the core form of Lord Ratatosk and the second was sent by the part of Lord Ratatosk residing in Lord Emil. I came back to Palmacosta instead of Ginnungagap because it's closer and I didn't have the power to teleport all the way there after Lord Emil fainted. I lost contact with Lord Emil and both forms of Lord Ratatosk and couldn't tell what is happening." Tenebrae answered and noticed the look of panic on the Summoner and narrowed his eyes.

"You know what happened." It wasn't a question. Tenebrae had found it strange when the trio arrived earlier even when he was told by Emil that Lloyd's birthday party was in Meltokio just a few days ago and they wouldn't have arrived in Palmacosta this fast, coupled with the fact that unusual things had been happening the last few days, he knew these three knew what happened.

"Say, Tenebrae, what if... ummm... what if either one form of Ratatosk was destroyed? What would happen to the other form and the Centurions?" Sheena asked uncertainly.

Understanding lit up in Tenebrae's eyes as he stared at Sheena with eyes full of disbeif. "Explain."

"Well you see-" The door to the room suddenly opened interrupting Sheena.

"I'm sorry. I know I said I will come in twenty minutes, but the doc-" Marta paused as she noticed the occupants in the room, minus Emil, staring at her, but what really stopped her was the look of dread on Tenebrae. "Did I miss something?"

* * *

"No way! It's not possible... but... if that's the case... then does it mean that Richter is... dead?" Marta asked worriedly after she heard the whole story.

Marta never really liked Richter, seeing as how he had been after her life for so long and how Emil looked up to the half elf only to be betrayed by him, but at the same time she couldn't deny the fact that Richter did willingly sacrifice one thousand years of his life to let Emil live a normal life with her. In fact, Emily would never be brought to this world if not for him, so Marta had quite a mixed feeling towards him.

"Probability of Richter surviving: five percent. Probability of Ratatosk's Core being destroyed: ninety seven percent." Presea said.

"Wait! If that's the case and they succeeded in destroying Ratatosk's Core, then... then what about the door to Niflheim, and what... what about Emil?" Marta said as she jumped to her feet, looking on the verge to cry.

"Rest assure, Lady Marta. Summon Spirits are beings made of mana and will not die from just losing part of their energy, as long as there's mana in the surrounding they can regenerate themselves. I'm sure Lord Emil will regain his consciousness after ample rest." Tenebrae said to Marta then turned to the others. "If the enemy really did split up and attack both Richter and Lord Emil, then the culprit of the fire will have to be either the demon possessed boy or the second Summon Spirit of Darkness."

"We need to hurry and find Raine then!" Genis cried as he also jumped to his feet.

"Wait Genis, we don't know if Raine decided to come back or continue her pursuit after Tenebrae left." Presea said.

"We were near Toize Valley Mine when I left." Tenebrae said.

"Why exactly did Raine go with you alone and why Toize Valley Mine?" Genis asked.

"We, as in Lord Emil and I, saw a cluster of dark mist migrating north-northwest moments after the fire broke out. After Raine healed most of the injured people, she started investigating the cause of fire. Upon hearing about the dark mist, she offered to follow after it. However, Lord Emil was too injured to leave Palmacosta anytime soon and Lady Marta was caught up with her duty to the people here and her daughter, so Lord Emil sent me to accompany her."

"North-northwest, huh?" Sheena muttered.

"The places lying north-northwest from Palmacosta are Altamira and the Otherworldly Gate." Presea said. Silence fell over the room after that as they thought of everything they knew up till now.

"You guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Sheena asked bitterly after a while.

Genis nodded gravely. "If whatever attacked Palmacosta deemed it fit to leave even though Emil's still alive, then either this is a decoy and the real deal is the attack in Ginnungagap or they finished whatever they came to do, which is unlikely."

Silence fell over the room once again as they began to think of what to do next.

"Anyway, there's no point just sitting around. We have to get to Ginnungagap to help Zelos and the others." Sheena finally said, breaking the silence.

"What about Raine?" "What about Emil and Emily?" Genis and Marta asked at the same time.

"Genis, whether Raine is coming back to Palmacosta or going to Altamira or the Otherwordly Gate, I am sure we will meet her on our way there. As for Emil and Emily, I would like to say it's best to bring Emil along with us, but then there's the problem of transport, not to mention we couldn't bring Emily along." Sheena said.

"I am not going if Emil and Emily are staying here. I also had to look after the other patients that were still recovering from the fire." Marta said.

"I understand that. It wouldn't be wise to leave Emil alone now... I have been thinking," Sheena pointed at Presea with her thumb, "how about Presea remained behind to help you protect Emil?"

Genis looked startled at Sheena's suggestion. "What? But-"

"Genis, that's the only way. The EC required Undine's power so I need to go, and I thought you wanted to see Raine?" Sheena said.

"But Presea-"

"No, Genis, Sheena is right. We don't know if anyone's coming back to attack Emil. Most of Tenebrae's power is gone and he couldn't be of much help-"

"Hey!" Tenebrae scrowled.

"- and Marta isn't exactly a fighter and she also needs to tend to Emily." Presea said.

"Guys! Could you just let me finish my sentence?" Genis cried out frustratingly, then after a while, he turned to Presea. "Presea, what I was going to say is that it's too dangerous for only you to remain behind." He then looked at Sheena. "And yes, I want to make sure sis is okay, but to the enemy, she's just a normal half elf and not a threat, like Emil. I'm sorry Sheena, but I am staying behind with Presea, can you handle it yourself? "

There was a stunned silence and after a while, Sheena blinked. "Are you joking? Did you forget that I am the chief of Mizuho?" Sheena replied as she rolled her eyes. "I can travel faster without the extra baggage anyway." She shrugged and ignored the indignant cry from Genis.

"Thanks guys." Marta said and smiled.

"Well, I better get going then." Sheena said as she started to leave the room.

"Wait, Sheena, can you tell Raine that I'm okay if you see her?" Genis asked.

Sheena waved her hand to let Genis know she heard him and exited the room.

* * *

Sheena walked to the shore where they left the EC and saw it in the same place as before. She pulled out her paper seals and started to summon Undine.

"I call upon the maiden of the mist. I summon thee, come, Undine!"

Undine appeared with a blast of water and turned to Sheena after taking a look at the EC. "I am sorry pact maker, I don't think it can withstand another travel without some repair first. I also don't think myself could endure another voyage right now."

Sheena sighed and inwardly cursed her luck. "Just what I need."

"If the voyage is not as long as the last one, may I suggest you ask Sylph and Celsius to do the task?" Undine said.

"Sylph? Celsius?" Sheena blinked at Undine's suggestion, she was going to ask what Undine meant by that but Undine already disappeared.

Sheena understood that Undine was indeed very tired and Sheena promised not to summon her again unless absolutely necessary in the coming week. After pondering Undine's words for several minutes, Sheena brought her hands together in front of her chest and hit her left palm with the bottom of her right fist as she finally understood what Undine's suggesting.

"This is going to be fun." There was a playful glint in her eyes as she pulled out her paper seal again.

"I call upon the three heavenly messengers. I summon thee, come, Sylph! I call upon the disciple of everlasting ice. I summon thee, come, Celsius!"

Three fairies appeared with a whirlwind before her followed by a woman fighter appearing with a small scale ice tornado.

"You called?" The fighter, Celsius, asked coolly.

"Hi Sheena!" One of the fairies, Fairess, said cheerfully as she waved her hand at Sheena while the other two fairies just stared at her with a neutral expression.

"Nice to see you too, Fairess, Sephie, Yutis and Celsius." Sheena said as she nodded at the Summon Spirits. "Tell me, what do you know about ice skating on the sea with an EC?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

So there's no Lloyd or Colette in this chapter and we take a look at what's happening to the other group. Hope the part about Emil and Marta not being able to show some actions isn't too much of a disappointment. And next chapter we will finally get to see Mithos!

**Strawberry Egg**s – Thanks for the review again. The part about Verius, I think I will just leave it at that, I mean without the explanation... or maybe later in the story I will find someplace to fit it in, I just don't think it will fit in the next few chapters. I knew this story is mainly based on TOS2, but the point is I don't have Wii... and I don't even have access to my PS2 and GC right now, so I can't even replay TOS... the good thing is I like to read, and it just so happens that there are many good TOS and TOS2 fanfics here^^ I'm also glad you like the action, I remember when I wrote my first ever fighting scene I was so afraid I was gonna screw up that I did lots of research on how others write action scenes... and that was only five months ago...


	6. The King of Summon Spirit

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 5: The King of Summon Spirit**

_~ 17 days ago ~_

_Wake up! I order you to wake up this instance, you inferior being!_

"Wha-" Lloyd whimpered as he opened his eyes.

"Urgh!" He grunted out and quickly closed his eyes again as he felt sharp pain the moment he opened it too quickly. He rubbed his eyes with the back of this hand for a while before slowly prying open his eyes again. He saw that he was surrounded by darkness.

However, there was some light coming from something like a slit from a wall. He focused at the light source and realized that that's actually a door, not a wall, just that the color was the same as the walls, or maybe they were actually different, not that he could tell due to the darkness.

He slowly sat up and felt all his muscles protesting against the slow movement. Once he was in an upright position, or as upright as he could get with his body condition, he started looking around. He noticed he was in a room of some sort with no window and the only opening was the slit, which he now realized was in fact a rectangular hole.

He slowly moved over to the nearest wall to lean against it and let out a tired sigh once he let the wall support his weight as he tried to sit up straighter. He moved his hands to their most comfortable position, which was to rest them on top of hilts of the swords, and realized to his horror that both of his swords were missing.

The memories of what happened before he fainted began returning to him. He remembered fending off waves after waves of small to medium sized demons to let Colette and Zelos escape. He remembered feeling the mana signature of the escape party getting farther and farther away and heard Origin telling him that he should also escape.

He was trying his best to get away from the oncoming demons and succeeding, until a bird made up of black mist, similar to the black mist that came out of Colette's mouth, but without the purple mixture, showed up.

He remembered that he was about midway to the exit when the bird demon or mist demon prevented his escape simply by blackening the surroundings and making him not knowing where he was going. He remembered not being able to see, hear, smell and feel mana when enveloped by the dark mist.

He was sure that's the end and started to panic when he heard Origin, no, not Origin, now that his memory started to get clearer and clearer, he remembered that the voice, and also the one telling him to escape, was very different to Origin's voice, telling him where to dodge.

Now that he thought about it, he didn't know what possessed him to just follow a strange voice popping up in his head, maybe it was the chaotic situation, his fear, or even just the adrenaline rush from having a drawn out battle after so long, but he was glad he followed the voice's instruction.

Even though it didn't do him much good in the end, if his present location and situation wasn't enough indication, at least he avoided several fatal blows and, judging from how he was alone right now, managed to let the others escape.

Wait? Or did the others actually escape? That bird demon came at him from the front, not behind... does that mean the bird demon... killed... the others?

_No, Karas didn't give off the feeling of death, so it's safe to assume she didn't kill anything and may have just passed by the others without killing them._

Lloyd blinked and started looking around. It was the same voice tipping him off during the battle, but the only voice that 'live' inside him was Origin and Origin was out of action.

But the voice didn't seem to be from any external source either, he might have pulled it off as some good demon helping him in the midst of the battle, but he didn't see anyone in the room right now. The voice was too loud to be from outside the room and so he concluded it indeed was coming from inside him, then there's also the thing that it sounded familiar...

_Glad to see your inferior brain did evolve to being able to pull off a decent thinking process in the last fourteen years. And before you ask, you were out for nearly three days._

"Three- ! Wait, who are you?" Lloyd whispered. His throat had been feeling like being impaled by a thousand sharp needle ever since he woke up and there was no reason to further strain his vocal chord

_You don't have to speak if you don't want to, I can read your mind._

After the voice finished the sentence, Lloyd saw something like dust sparkling in the air followed by a soothing and dim light slightly illuminating the darkened room. After the light disappeared, he saw-

"Wha- why are you- no, I mean- wait, aren't you supposed to be dead?" Lloyd had his jaw opened wide as he stared unbelievingly at the ghostly figure, Mithos Yggdrasil, hero of the Ancient Kharlan War, previous Eternal Swordsman and leader of Cruxis, the very one he killed and whose Cruxis Crystal was destroyed by him, floating before him, too surprised to remember he wasn't supposed to talk and further damage his throat.

"At least the Chosen didn't gap like a fish." Mithos smirked.

The surprise on Lloyd's face was replaced by embarrassment as he quickly closed his mouth. "Shu-" He started coughing before he could even finish the word.

Mithos rolled his eyes. "I told you to speak with you mind, but I suppose idiocy runs in all humans."

_Right, can you hear me?_ Lloyd 'asked' as he pointedly ignored the insult and tried to think aloud to which Mithos nodded. _So what happened? Aren't you supposed to be dead?_

"The demons revived me, or my spirit at least, and asked me to help them open the door to Nilfheim with the promise of Martel's revival if I helped them willingly."

Lloyd gasped. _Wait, so you are the one that came out of Shadow's ring? You actually agreed to work with them!?_

"Of course not. Killing inferior beings is one thing, but Martel would really have _killed _me if I stoop so low as to ally myself with the demons and let them rampage in the world." Mithos said with an irritating look.

Lloyd didn't like the way Mithos talked when he mentioned the word inferior, but at least he wasn't spitting out the word like he used to when he was in his 'Yggdrasill form'. _Okay... but if you didn't do it, who's that yellow flash?_

Mithos sighed. "That was me, I was controlled by a demon called Void. I was confused when the demons first revived me, seeing as one moment I was telling you to destroy my Cruxis Crystal then the next was me standing before some demon I have never seen before with another one wreaking havoc in my mind. I admitted I let my guard down and let that disgusting thing control me, but then when I finally regained enough strength to fight it, he was too integrated in my mind for me to just cut him out from my thoughts."

_Umm... so you and Void were the one that possessed the boy, Richter and Colette?_

"Obviously."

_What happened then? Why did Richter know how to help Colette?_

"It was a... fortunate accident."

_Huh?_

"After they, I mean the boy controlled by Void through me and Karas, destroyed Ratatosk's Core and the Sacred Stone, we, I mean Void and I, entered that half elf's body. However, when we entered that man's body, something flowed from the shattered pieces that still stuck to his body to me and I suddenly had the strength to fight back alongside that half elf. The fight ended when Karas also entered the body and-

_So Karas can also do the possess thing?_

Mithos glared at Lloyd for interrupting him. "She couldn't, but she used Void as a medium. Anyway, as I was saying just now, she found out the problem and ripped off the remaining core and threw away the pieces of the Sacred Stone. That's why we knew how to get them out of the Chosen's body."

Mithos then shrugged. "I told the Chosen how to get rid of it just before Void got hold of her mind and I have to applaud her for being able to move her leg an inch towards the shattered pieces of Sacred Stone and Ratatosk's Core before finally submitting."

_That's Colette for you. _Lloyd thought proudly at the accomplishment of his wife. _But why did that get rid of Void and Karas? _

"Seems the Sacred Stone was still usable." Lloyd looked confused at the information and Mithos added. "But that was the last bit, that's why you can't use it to prevent the demon from passing the door. Anyway, the Sacred Stone got Void out of Colette while Ratatosk's Core got Karas out."

_How? I mean, I understand the part about the Sacred Stone and Void, but how did Ratatosk's Core fit in all this? Some remaining power in the shattered pieces again?_

"Yes and no." Mithos replied and smirked. "It appeared that Verius had been trying to hold in the escaping power of Ratatosk when the core shattered. And it was actually him that got rid of Karas, not Ratatosk."

_Huh? Verius? Why? I mean, couldn't he just come and save Colette and Richter?_

"From what Verius had been telling me, when he split Ratatosk into two forms, a special link was created between him and the two forms of Ratatosk. So when he felt a distress signal coming from Ratatosk, he came here right away." Mithos paused to see if Lloyd's still following him, satisfied with the look on concentration on Lloyd, he continued. "But then since there's no mana- I have been meaning to ask, why isn't there any mana?"

_Oh that, Origin told me Ratatosk had been sucking up the mana in Ginnungagap._

Mithos furrowed his brows. "Why would he do that?"

_It's for the New Law._

"What law?" Mithos crossed his arms before him and had a look of impatience and irritation on him. He was impatient that Lloyd had to wait for him to ask the question and not just telling him the whole thing right away and irritated that an inferior being, one of the dumbest he had ever met no less, knew something he didn't.

_Something about making it so that we can still live even though there's no more mana... Urgh! It's been so long since I last heard his explanation and it's difficult for me to explain without Origin helping me! _Lloyd looked frustrated as he tried to remember the exact wordings from Ratatosk and Origin and failing.

"What? He- he can do that?" Mithos stared at Lloyd with slightly widened eyes.

Lloyd was confused at his reaction. _Yeah. Is it really that surprising? I can't really remember what happened then, but I don't think even Raine was that surprised. Or is it a Cruxis thing? I remembered Yuan had a similar look when I told him that. _

Although it was a long time ago, he really did remember Yuan looking surprised when Raine explained to him what happened then. After all, it wasn't everyday for the normally composed half elf to lose his composure.

Lloyd briefly entertained the thought of his dad having a similar look as Yuan and Mithos if he were to tell him about it. Now that was a rare sight, Kratos Aurion, the ever stoic warrior, being startled. He then felt a pang of regret as he remembered that Kratos was in Derris Kharlan and Lloyd could never bug his dad into wearing more expressions on his face again.

However, Mithos didn't notice Lloyd's sudden distress as he was lost in his own world and had a far away look. "No... it's just... if we had known, then the war... the worlds... and Martel..." Then the look disappeared as he shook his head and once again focused on Lloyd. "Anyway, back to the explanation, since there's no mana-"

_What was it about Martel?_

Mithos shook his head. "It's not important... at least not anymore... no, you don't need to know about it."

_But-_

"Just think of it as a Cruxis thing." Mithos waved his hand dismissing the topic. "Since there's no mana, Verius can only exist by clinging to the escaping power of the shattered core. That's why direct contact of the shattered core and the Chosen pushed Karas out of her body."

_So where's Verius now?_

"Within me. He can't exist on his own in Nilfheim, seeing as there's nearly no mana here, and-"

_We are in Niflheim? _Lloyd gasped and interrupted Mithos.

Mithos narrowed his eyes at Lloyd. "In case you missed the part about being held prisoner by the demons, yes, we are in Niflheim. And you interfere me one more time, boy, I promise you will find out the hard way why I was the hero of the Ancient Kharlan War and the leader of Cruxis for four thousand years."

Lloyd mentally rolled his eyes at Mithos' threat. _Yeah right, and I killed you. _

Mithos glared at him so hard that for one moment Lloyd thought it was actually his father standing there giving him his infamous death glare. "I will have you know I had been holding back in our final battle. I was mentally unstable and was starting to get tired about living, especially after Martel's rejection. To tell the truth, I was actually looking forward to you lot finally putting an end to it. Don't you dare think for a moment that you inferior beings can kill me at my fullest."

Then there was an evil glint in Mithos' eyes as he smirked dangerously. "Not to mention there are so many things I could do to you now that I am a ghost. You do know what they say an angry ghost could do to a man, don't you?"

_Right, question after all the explaining, got it. _Lloyd gulped and passed his hands in front of his mouth in a zipping motion.

Satisfied at Lloyd's reaction, Mithos resumed his explanation. "When the demons revived me, they made it such that I couldn't survive on my own unless I am to either have a physical body or have something powerful to hold my soul together. So when that half elf got Void and Karas out of the Chosen, I remained within her body."

Mithos then started to shift uncomfortably. "But then... Verius was also there within the Chosen and... he... said something about a change of heart and... decided to help me... and so we are now coexisting." He paused and regained his composure. "And that's all I think you need to know now. Any questions?"

_The door?_

"Only the smaller demons can pass through now, though from my estimation it will only take eight months at most for it to open completely."

Lloyd closed his eyes and started to think on what he had learned so far from Mithos. To tell the truth, all this explaining was making his head hurt, especially when he just woke up from a three-day coma. Then he noticed something weird with the explanation.

_Hey Mithos, did you just say Karas passed by Colette and the others without doing anything to them?_

"Well, Verius said she didn't kill them, but it didn't mean she didn't injure them."

Lloyd frowned at the thought of Colette and Zelos fighting off the rogue Summon Spirit while protecting the boy and Richter and getting hurt, then he shook his head to rid himself of the mental image and proceeded to ask the question he wanted to ask.

_But didn't you also say she was with you and Void in Richter and then Colette? How come she's coming from the other side then?_

"Do you know of Shadow's ability to split himself up?" Mithos asked.

Lloyd recalled the time when they first visited the Temple of Darkness and had to go through the pain of finding all the smaller Shadows and guiding them back to the altar just so they could fight and make a pact with Shadow. _So Karas can do the same thing?_

"Yes."

_Why do you know about all this? Undine told us no one else knows about it, or is it Verius? _Lloyd asked as he remembered Undine's words about the knowledge of Karas being forbidden.

"Yes and no. Verius did explain to me some of the things. But mostly I learned of them when I was in Niflheim."

_Huh? You were here before?_

"After I was revived, I was here for roughly three months before going to the outside world. Void had total control over me, but I was aware of the things happening around me. I could also sort through the memories of the demon."

_And why did you come with me? Weren't you in Colette's body?_

"The Chosen was worried about you. If I didn't offer to come to you, she would have never agreed to escape."

Lloyd nodded at Mithos and closed his eyes to rest. There were still many questions on his mind like what Niflheim looked like and how far were they from the passage way to Ginnungagap, but those weren't urgent and he was getting too tired to ask them now.

His muscle and throat were still sore and all he wanted to do was rest. He felt he was starting to go into a semi-conscious state when-

"That's it?" Mithos asked.

_What's what? _Lloyd lazily opened his eyes and saw a curious and slightly alarmed expression on Mithos.

"Aren't you going to jump at me with your swords – I mean fist – raised?" Mithos asked.

_Do you really think I'm in any condition to move?_

"But... even if you aren't coming at me, aren't you going to at least shout or start screaming bloody murder at me with your mind or something like that?"

_Why would I do that? _Lloyd frowned at Mithos ridiculous idea.

"Why!? You ask me why!? After everything, you are going to accept the fact that the demons revived me? You are going to... forgive me? Just like that?"

_What's passed is past. And you know what? You never really look evil to me, though I can't say the same for your 'Yggdrasill form'._ Lloyd joked, then he added when he saw Mithos looked like he was about to protest. _If Verius trust you, then so am I. _He smiled reassuringly at Mithos.

"... I knew I said it before, but really, you are strong, Lloyd, to trust someone who's betrayed you before. I wish I could be like you." Mithos said with a sad smile.

_I remembered that. I didn't realize what you really meant by then, but I understand now and want to tell you that you can also do it. _Despite looking exhausted on the outside, Lloyd thought to Mithos cheerfully.

"It's too late..."

_It's never too late! If dad and Yuan can do it, then so can you, after all, you are younger than them... or are you?_

Mithos grinned at Lloyd's question. "I will have you know that apart from Summon Spirits, Protozoans and maybe some of the demons, Yuan is now the oldest being to walk on this world by being sixty two years Kratos' senior and seventy six years my senior."

_Oh great, so dad isn't the oldest one. _Lloyd thought and tried his best to send a mental image of wiping cold sweat from his forehead.

_No wonder Yuan is always so grumpy, I could only imagine the daily pressure he feels just by being the oldest people in the world. _He added as an afterthought and this time made a mental image of him trying his best to imitate Yuan when he was in one of his 'grumpy modes'.

Mithos laughed at the mental image. "You are getting pretty good at this mind speaking business."

_It wasn't that hard. _

"By the way, Lloyd." Mithos said after his laughter died down.

_Huh? _Lloyd looked at Mithos to find him staring intently at an invisible spot on the floor between them.

"... th... thank you..." Lloyd swore he saw Mithos' face became a bit redder, if it was possible for a spirit to blush, as he said the two words.

_You are welcome. _This time, Lloyd sent a mental image of him grinning brightly to Mithos.

_So Mit- _Lloyd paused as he suddenly felt pain exploding from within his body, near his heart. He gasped and clutched at his heart. He looked up and saw Mithos in a similar position as him, even though spirit weren't supposed to have any internal organ. After a while, the pain subsided and he closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall and started panting harshly.

"Lloyd, are you okay?" Lloyd opened his eyes tiredly and saw Mithos hovering above him with a worried look and Lloyd noticed that Mithos was more transparent than before.

_Have had worse. What's that just now?_

"I don-" Mithos paused and his eyes lost focus for a brief second, then he looked at Lloyd with a horrified expression, one that Lloyd had never seen on the half elf even when he ran his sword through him fourteen years ago. "Verius told me the demons sealed Origin."

* * *

She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a blur of silver and orange.

"Oh, Sheena, you are finally awake!" The relieved voice came to her ears from the blur. She blinked a few times to get her bearings and saw that the blur was actually Raine Sage, the half elf she had been searching for.

"Raine? What happened?" Sheena asked as she sat up from the make shift bed on the ground and groaned as she felt pain coursing through her body.

Raine helped Sheena sit up and started to explain. "I was on my way to Altamira when I felt a sudden shift of mana in the air. It was only for a split second and everything became normal after that. I decided to go and have a look nonetheless and ended up walking into a forest."

"Let me guess, you found me unconscious on the ground."

"Yes, apparently something happened to make you fall from a tree."

"From a tree?" Sheena asked confusingly.

"Well, at least your injuries indicated that you had a fall from a very high place." Raine said.

Sheena furrowed her brows as she tried to remember what caused her to faint. "How long was I out?"

"It's three hours since I felt the mana shift. What's the last thing you remembered?" Raine asked, hoping to jog the Summoner's memory.

"I... I was traveling in the woods jumping from branches to branches." Sheena said as she started to remember the events leading to her falling unconscious.

"What!?" Raine thundered indignantly. "How could you do something so dangerous!?"

"That was the way ninja from Mizuho travels, it's the fastest. And it's not dangerous, I have been traveling that way for nearly twenty years already, I just never did it in front of you guys." Sheena explained and waved her hand to let Raine know it's nothing important.

Raine glared at Sheena. "If it wasn't as dangerous as you claimed, then how do you explain your injuries."

"I'm sure there's an explanation to i- I remember now!" Sheena exclaimed. "There was a sharp pain in my chest and I blacked out momentarily. I lost my footing and tripped over when I tried to jump to the next tree and crashed to the ground."

"A sharp pain in the chest and momentary black out?" Raine muttered as she looked down at Sheena's lap, thinking about her words. "When I checked you over, I didn't find anything wrong apart from the outward injuries... were you sick recently?"

Before Sheena could answer Raine's question, there was a sudden light in the room momentarily blinding the two females. When the light faded, they opened their eyes and saw Maxwell, the Summon Spirit of Element, floating before them.

"Maxwell? Did something happened?" Sheena asked curiously, this was the first time Maxwell appeared before her without her summoning him.

"It's Origin. The link between us and Origin had been waning ever since Lloyd's group ventured into Ginnungagap, which is explainable seeing as how thin the mana is in that place. However, just three hours ago there was a sudden energy drain in all Summon Spirits and the next thing we know, the link disappeared and we couldn't sense Origin anymore." Maxwell said as he gripped his staff tightly.

Sheena and Raine gasped. "Origin!? Wha- what happened to Lloyd?" Sheena asked.

"As far as we know, the Eternal Sword is still in active use, but the link is thin. We Summon Spirits are suffering greatly from and mourning for the lost of our King. We have all lost a significant amount of power and I am one of the only Summon Spirits that can still appear in the physical world. I'm sorry to inform you that the Elemental Summon Spirits may not be able to help in the coming battles unless Origin returns, though you can still summon me, Luna and Shadow. Please, Sheena, hurry to Ginnungagap and find out what happened to Origin." Maxwell disappeared after he finished his explanation.

Both women continued staring at the spot Maxwell occupied even after he vanished. Raine made a cough a while later and Sheena shifted her attention to the half elf and saw Raine frowning at her.

"What is it about Lloyd going to Ginnungagap?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Sorry for updating so late! I finally had access to my PS2 and was replaying TOS and also got other things to do... but fear not, my policy is that once I started something, I will finish it, no matter how long it takes, be it months or years (well, lets just hope that that won't be the case for this fic...)

Poor Sheena, she could only summon three summon spirits from now on. I think there's also something that's not clear in my fic, so I guess I will do some explanation here: in my story, Verius never really formed a pact with anyone and Orign, although having made a pact with Sheena, could be reached through the Eternal Sword and thus the demons could get their hands on him after they took the Eternal Sword from Lloyd.

**Strawberry Eggs –** Hmmm... I know Marta can fight, but as you have said, I really don't think someone who had been a nurse for nearly six years and had been taking care of their daughter could be considered a very good fighter, especially when compared with Presea. It's the same with Colette, so she will most likely only cast spells in this fic, and I think it's quite obvious why Lloyd, Presea, Zelos and Sheena didn't have any problem keeping up their skills. As for Palmacosta being the victim again... it's either it or Luin, and both had a history of being destroyed :P And it didn't matter what kind of comment you left, I will still love it^^


	7. The Resolve to Protect

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Resolve to Protect**

_~ 16 days ago ~_

Altamira, a city run by the Lezareno Company, was a place mostly for fun and relaxation. People from all over the world came to this place mainly to indulge themselves in the entertainment the city provided, be it playing in the amusement park, gambling in the casino, going to the beach, resting in the five star hotels, dining in the fine restaurants or watching dramas in the theater.

Ever since the return of the president of the Lezareno Company, Regal Bryant, fourteen years ago, the company had thrived even more than before and the facilities in the city became even more advanced, making it an even more ideal place for people to spend their holiday.

However, the same cannot be said for two women, one human and one half elf, that just entered the city. Once they entered the city, the two travelers walked determinedly towards the main building of the Lezareno Company requesting to see Duke Bryant at the reception.

"I'm sorry, but do you have an appointment?" The lady at the reception smiled at them professionally, though Sheena could detect just a hint of annoyance.

"Raine Sage and Sheena Fujibayashi." Raine said.

"Oh, Miss Sage, it's you. The president is in an important meeting right now. I could leave a message to let him know that you are here to see him." Over the years, Raine had been a frequent visitor to the company. Mainly because Regal was the main financial supporter of her and her brother's trip over the world to end discrimination.

"Thank you, that would be appreciated, and could we wait here?" Raine asked as she gestured towards the couch in the lobby.

"Yes, but I am not sure how long the meeting is going to be."

"We'll be fine." Raine thanked the receptionist again and went over to the couch with Sheena.

With nothing else to do, the two began chatting about how their lives were recently, not wanting to talk about the crisis at hand until they see Regal. They could have gone to Ginnungagap without sidetracking to Altamira, but Raine reasoned that with most of the Summon Spirits not being able to help at the time being, it's best to get as many help as they could before going there.

Sheena had argued that they needed to go to help the others as soon as possible but Raine again countered with the fact that she had no doubt the angels already arrived at the Ginnungagap several days ago and it wouldn't matter if they arrived one more day later.

They were talking about the mischief of Zayver and how Zelos was spoiling their son when the double glassed door slid open and a girl with flowing aqua hair entered.

"Raine! Sheena!" The girl exclaimed the moment she saw the two women resting on the couch.

"Alice, nice to see you. How are you doing?" Raine smiled at Regal's daughter as she walked over to them.

"I'm good. It's too bad you didn't come to the birthday party, it was... quite exciting." Alice turned to Sheena. "And why are you here? I thought you went to Palmacosta?"

"Plan's changed." Sheena furrowed her brows. "Why do you know I went to Palmacosta anyway? I didn't recall you there when we decided who went where."

Alice widened her eyes as if she just remembered something important. "Oh yes, you need to come with me now."

"But we are waiting for Regal." Sheena said, unsure of what Alice wanted with them.

"I am taking you to dad."

"I thought he is in an important meeting?" Raine asked.

Alice nodded. "Yes, he is with Colette and the others now."

She turned and left the administration building without another word, knowing that the two women were after her. The three of them walked in silence with Sheena and Raine wondering what happened to their friends but decided to wait for Regal or one of the other adults to explain.

Alice led them to the center of the city, and when they neared the hotel where Sheena and Raine thought the others were staying in, Alice did a sharp turn to the right, towards the direction of the Central Altamira Hospital.

Sheena widened her eyes as she noticed where they were going and was about to inquire of the condition of her husband when she felt a hand nudging her side and turned to see Raine shaking her head at her. Sheena sighed and followed silently after Alice as she entered the building and later one of the lifts.

Alice pressed the button with the label '3' and the lift started to ascend. "They were in one of the private wards on level three." After they got to the third floor, Alice led them down the corridor to a room with the sign 'Do not disturb' hanging on the door knob.

She knocked on the door. "Dad, I am coming in." They heard the muffled voice of Regal from behind the door giving them an okay before Alice opened the door.

"Zelos!" Sheena called out the moment she spotted Zelos sitting up on a bed dressed in hospital gown and rushed to his side.

"Hunny? What happened? Why are you-"

"I should be asking you that!" Sheena started to check over her husband for injuries. "What happened? Where are you hurt? Who-"

"Whao, whao, calm down hunny, I am okay. Though if you still want reassurance, I will be glad to let you check over my body later tonight, when we are alo-"

Zelos didn't get to finish his sentence as a loud slap resounded in the room and he held onto his now red face. "No fair! Hunny! How could you do that to your already injured husband! I am in such a delicate state and I need all the rest I could get! What if I fainted because of that?"

"I'm sure you could faint and have as much rest as you want after I'm through with you." Sheena sneered as she crackled her knuckle.

"Now's not the time, Sheena." Regal intercepted and placed a hand on Sheena's shoulder. "Zelos is recovering from extreme mana depletion. Other than that, he had various physical injuries, but nothing too serious."

"Zelos, where's Lloyd and Colette?" Raine asked.

"The Chosen of Sylvarant is having a walk." A deep voice said and Raine and Sheen noticed that Richter was also in the room. Like Zelos, the red haired half elf was also sitting up on a bed further in the room dressed in hospital gown.

"Richter? Good, so you're still alive." Raine said, relieved that Richter did get out alive. "What happened to the seal? And where's Lloyd? I take it he's with Colette?"

Once the question was out, the occupants in the room, Regal, Richter, Zelos and Alice, all fell silent and Sheena and Raine could feel the grim atmosphere.

"Something happened to him." It wasn't a question, though Sheena didn't want to admit it, she knew and braced herself for the bad news..

"We were too late. The seal was weakened enough for the demons to force open it and we were outnumbered. Lloyd stayed behind so we could escape... we haven't heard of him since." Zelos said, his voice barely above a whisper, as if something bad was going to happen if he raised his voice too much.

"It was my fault. If I had been more careful the demon won't succeed. For that I apologize." Richter said.

"No, you don't have to apologize. If Lloyd's here, he wouldn't want you to blame yourself for something that couldn't be avoided." Raine said. "How's Colette handling it?"

"She keeps telling us, telling herself, that Lloyd's fine, that he's simply escaped to somewhere else. It's been four days since then. We didn't say anything to discourage her as we know she needs it, but I can tell from her look that she knew how slim the chance of Lloyd having escaped is, but she remains hopeful on the outside." Regal closed his eyes as he recalled the state Colette was in. " She wanted to cry, I can see it from her look, but she couldn't."

"And you let her on her own when she's in this state?" Raine glared at Regal.

"We are going to discuss what we are going to do from now on and Colette said that Dylan didn't need to hear it and took him out for a walk." Zelos explained.

"Dylan?" Sheena asked.

"The boy possessed by the demon." Alice answered.

"Aren't you going to return him to Meltokio?" Raine asked.

Regal shook his head. "I don't think it's wise to let him go home. I have looked over his profile and found that the woman he murdered was his only relative, and due to the... work of his mother, he didn't have much friends either."

Sheena looked at Regal sharply. To murder one's own mother, the last link to his family. She had done something similar in the past and even though they weren't related by blood, she did put her grandpa, the previous Chief of Mizuho, into a coma. But at least she still had the hope that her grandpa would finally wake up one day, which he did nearly five years later.

She still remembered the relief she felt when her grandpa finally woke up from the long slumber, it was like finally taking off a heavy burden and part of her guilt was finally released. It's different for the boy, the death of his mother was absolute and there was no hope left.

Raine closed her eyes. "What are you going to do with him?"

"He's still recovering, both physically and mentally. I believe it will be a long time till he could accept his mother's death, if ever. It's never easy for people, especially one so young, to bear the guilt of killing their loved ones." Regal said as he looked down at his hands, momentarily seeing his blood stained hands from all those years ago, the blood of Alicia, the only woman he ever loved. "He will be staying here undergoing medical treatment until he fully recovers. We will let him decide for himself what he wants to do after that."

"Dad, I am going to see how Dylan and Colette's doing." Alice said and upon seeing the Regal's nod, left the room.

There was silence in the room after Alice left, then Zelos cleared his throat and began. "So hunny, what brings the two of you to Altamira? Where's Presea and the twerp?" And earned an irritating glance from Raine for calling her brother twerp again.

* * *

The news about Origin was a surprise. Who knew a Summon Spirit as powerful as Origin could be sealed? But then Mithos reminded Lloyd that he also sealed Origin into Kratos before, and he was just a half elf with some amazing crystal that gave him an energy boost. Mithos, or maybe it was actually Verius, told him that the seal that was on Origin this time was the seal used on Karas all those years ago, a seal that prevented him from channeling Origin's power with the Eternal Sword. Most likely Karas was the one that sealed him, since it was a seal that only Summon Spirit could perform.

Lloyd was worried about the time seal on the door being lifted and asked Verius about it. He was relieved when he was told that the time seal wouldn't be lifted unless someone were to use the Eternal Sword to do so, like how the split worlds wouldn't just reunite themselves unless someone were to use the Eternal Sword to reunite them.

Now that he didn't have to worry about anything, except the part about him being a prisoner of the demons and needing to find a way to close the door again, he decided to use the time to understand more about the situation and find a way to escape.

"Why didn't they just kill us?" Lloyd asked the boy spirit before him.

After a full night rest, although his muscle was still sore, his throat felt better now. Though speaking with his mind was what he considered a cool thing, he had heard stories of people finding it difficult to speak or just forgetting how to use their vocal chords after not speaking and he didn't want to risk it. Then there's also the fact that the prison was too quiet for his taste and Mithos' voice was only barely above a whisper.

"You, they don't know I am here." Mithos replied.

Lloyd blinked. "How? I mean, you have been chatting with me since yesterday. At least the one guarding the door should have heard you."

"It seems they don't think an inferior be- you could escape this room and didn't bother with a prison guard. Verius also covered up my mana signature so they can't detect me."

Lloyd noticed Mithos still tended to use his superior speech during their conversations, but he decided to just let it go, he knew it was difficult to change habits overnight. Heck, he himself couldn't change his habit to sleep in, and he was only thirty one years old, imagine Mithos changing a _four-thousand-year-old_ habit. At least Lloyd could see that he was making an effort.

"Cool! If there's no guard, then it's easier to escape."

"You plan to break a three-meter-thick metal door with your bare fist?" Mithos snickered.

Lloyd's face flushed red at Mithos' suggestion. "... right... umm... so what do you think?"

"How to escape or why they spared your life?"

"The second one."

Mithos closed his eyes as he thought about it. "I think there is something they want from you, though I don't know what it is."

Lloyd sighed. "What's with people wanting things from me anyway?"

"If you really want me to make a list, Forcystus and Kvar wanted you for the exphere from the Angelus Project, Yuan wanted you for your father's life to release Origin, I wanted you for your right to wield the Eternal Sword, if you have been captured other than that, I guess it's just because you are annoying. "

"That's right!" Lloyd suddenly exclaimed.

Mithos raised an eyebrow at him. "You agree with me that you are annoying?"

"Wha- No! What if-" He stopped himself as he thought of something else. "Ummm... there's something I think I forgot to ask last night. What happened to the Eternal Sword? Did it... disappear?"

"No. I thought you have already been told that the Eternal Sword and Origin are quite independent?"

"Huh? Is that so? I forgot..." A pause. "What about the right to use it? I can only use it because Origin acknowledged me... but what about now? Verius said that the seal is different from the one you used, so... can I still use it?"

"... that's a good question." Mithos closed his eyes for a while before looking at Lloyd again. "Verius said he doesn't think you lost the right to wield it just because Origin's power is cut off. But he thinks maybe that's part of the reason you can't call the sword to you last night, not just because of the lack of mana here... so what were you going to say just now?"

"Huh?" Lloyd asked confusedly.

Mithos rolled his eyes. "We were talking about what the demons want from you."

"Ah yes! The Eternal Sword!" Lloyd exclaimed.

Realization lit up in Mithos' eyes, but then it was quickly changed to one of annoyance. "How come I didn't think of i- someone's coming." Mithos hissed the last part and disappeared into thin air. Lloyd blinked at the suddenness of Mithos' departure. He then heard footsteps approaching.

_Don't do anything rash, we don't need them further injuring you for your idiotic actions and postpone our escape. _Lloyd nearly jumped when he heard Mithos' voice within his mind.

_Stop being so surprised at everything I do, it's starting to get annoying. _Though Lloyd couldn't see, he heard the irritation in his tone and knew Mithos rolled his eyes at him again.

Then he remembered something Mithos said. _Escape? You have a-_

_Later._ Mithos interrupted Lloyd's question as the door to the cell opened revealing two very ugly trolls.

* * *

Screams filled the air and the night sky was tainted an orange red and gray-almost-black smoke covered the sky as fire started spreading around. Those who weren't fast enough to escape or were trapped by the fire were toyed with, killed and thrown carelessly to a growing pile of corpse as the demons that escaped from Niflheim rampaged the outskirts of Altamira. In only several seconds, the city renowned for it's view became the lowest pit of hell.

"O holy one, cast thy purifying light upon this corrupt soul." Colette started gathering the mana required for the spell as she hovered several inches above the magic circle for angelic skills with her wings flapping lightly behind her.

"Light of judgment!" She tried her best to block out the screams of the dying people as she focused on adding the target specific element to her spell so as not to accidentally injured the people she wanted to save.

"Judgment!" The already darkened sky became even darker as thick light beams hailed down from the sky.

Demons that came in contact with the light beams were either instantly killed or gravely injured by the light based spell to the point of not being able to move. But it wasn't enough. There were just too many demons for Colette to handle on her own.

_~ 2 hours ago ~_

Colette was trying to put up her best smile and forget that her husband was missing, concentrating instead on cheering up the youngster sitting on the wheelchair she was pushing around. Cheering up the others was one of Colette's specialty and she hated seeing people sad. That's why when the others went to discuss about the demons and the door to Niflheim, Colette offered to take Dylan out for a short walk.

The other reason being that Colette knew that her presence would only make things worse in her current state. She had been trying so hard to put up her cheerful smile and didn't want that effort went to waste if she was to suddenly break down and started choking on invisible tears that could never fell from her eyes and worried the others.

"Colette! Dylan!" A distant voice shouted from behind them.

Colette and Dylan turned around and saw Alice running up to them. "Hi Alice! Are you joining us for our walk?" Colette asked cheerfully.

"Yes, I was meaning to join you two sooner but something came up." She told Colette and turned to the expressionless and quiet boy sitting on the wheelchair, who she noticed was staring at her intently. "Hey there Dylan, how are you feeling today?"

Dylan turned his head back to the front the moment their eyes met and nodded his head. "I have been better."

Alice sighed as Colette smiled apologetically at her. "So Alice, what came up?"

"Oh! Guess what?" Alice had a secretive smile on her.

Colette cocked her head to the side. "What?"

"Raine is here! I took her to dad and the others just now." Alice purposefully left out Sheena. From what she overheard the other night, Sheen was supposed to be in Palmacosta with Genis and Presea. She didn't know why she's here, but she didn't want to accidentally say the wrong thing and further worried Colette.

"Really!? That's good, I haven't seen the Professor for nearly six months already!" Colette exclaimed as she smiled cheerfully and turned to Dylan, or the back of Dylan's head.

"Dylan, the Professor is a great healer, maybe she could heal your legs so you can walk again sooner!" It wasn't like Dylan's legs were hurt that bad, but the doctor told him not to walk for the next two weeks. Again, the boy said nothing and just nodded as he stared straight ahead.

Alice walked over to stand in front of Dylan and bent down so she could look at him in the eyes. "So Dylan, where are you two going?"

Dylan closed his eyes and leaned back and shrugged. "It wasn't my idea to go out."

"But there has to be someplace you want to go."

Dylan shook his head.

"O come on, I bet this is your first time in Altamira. Tell me what you wanna do and I will take you there." Alice insisted.

Dylan opened his emerald eyes and held eye contact with the aqua haired female before him. "What do you suggest then."

Alice knew that the boring tone suggested that he wasn't really interested in going anywhere, but she was determined to help the boy open up again. She knew Colette could do a better job than her at this, but Colette also told her earlier that it would be better if someone whose age was closer to him were to help him.

Colette smiled as she observed the exchange between the two kids. She was glad for Alice's presence, not just because of Dylan, but also herself. A small part of her knew that she herself needed the company of someone not involved in all this, she didn't want another one looking at her like... like they were pitying her. She knew they were good natured, and most of the people she knew knew better than to do that to her. But... she just didn't want to face anyone that reminded her of her missing husband.

Alice finally decided to take Dylan to the bridge that connected the center part of the city to the pier. They strolled along the bridge with Alice and Colette occasionally pointing out at different parts of the city explaining different stuff. Colette knew Dylan was happy for Alice's presence even though he didn't show it.

The sun was starting to set and they decided to get back to the others when Colette felt uneasy and noticed a shift in mana in the surroundings. There was only time for Colette to warn the others that something was coming when one of the nearby buildings exploded and went up in flames as people started panicking.

"Alice! Take Dylan back to the hospital and tell your dad and the others to come quickly!" Colette half shouted to the bewildered Alice and Dylan as they stared unbelievably at the building to get their attention.

Then, without checking to see if the two children, or just Alice as Dylan couldn't walk yet, followed her instruction, she ran in the direction of the building that exploded. She saw some brave elves and half elves getting closer to the explosion site and started using water magic to put out the fire.

She noticed children huddling together while calling for the parents they lost sight of in all the chaos when a second building exploded, making the already crazy situation even crazier. She started towards the children, hoping to offer them some help when she felt before she saw creatures of various type closing in on her. She quickly took up a defensive stance to prepare for an all out battle as she pulled out her pink translucent mana wings and whipped out her chakrams.

She had been focusing so hard at the oncoming enemies that, if not for her angelic hearing, she would have missed the gargoyle coming down at her from above with its claws outstretched. Quickly dodging to the right, Colette took advantage of the fact that the gargoyle was coming down at her with so much force that its claw was struck in the ground and it was taking the slightest moment to pull it out to regain her composure and attacked it.

"Para Ball!" Two spheres were thrown at the demon and it was struck by two lightning bolts when it came in contact with the spheres momentarily stunning it. Colette then followed her attack by rushing to the stunned demon and slashing it diagonally with her chakram.

Although the gargoyle was made of stone, Colette's chakram was custom made by none other than her own husband to slash through pretty much anything, coupled with her angelic strength and training with Lloyd, who insisted Colette to better her fighting skills so as to protect herself when he was not available - really, he was even starting to get as paranoid as Kratos - all these years, her enemy was cut into two with just that single slash of hers.

Hearing and sensing another demon closing in on her from behind, Colette effortlessly pulled the corpse in front of her and turned around, blocking the fist from the demon, this time a ghoul, with the remnants of the gargoyle. She pushed the corpse and the ghoul away with as much force as she could muster.

Not wasting another moment, the angel threw her chakram towards the ghoul, who had just pushed the dead body away. "Ray Satellite!" The chakram stopped flying when it came to contact with the enemies and started revolving, critically damaging the ghoul.

However, even before the attack finished and for the chakram to return to her, another demon, which looked suspiciously like a darkened wolf, came at Colette with its mouth opened wide and Colette had to dive forward to the ghoul she was just attacking to prevent being bitten by the wolf.

She body slammed into the ghoul, knocking it to the ground. She retrieved the chakram she just thrown while slashing at it with her other chakram. Once she was sure the ghoul was dead, she flapped her wings and took off to the sky and just in time avoided another attempt to kill her as a medusa slammed its tail down at the dead ghoul.

Seeing that there's no way for her to kill the demons one by one, she decided to fly to a secluded area where the demon hadn't reached yet and started to cast her favorite angel spell.

"Holy wings, gather here to reveal the Lord's will. Angel Feathers!"

_~ End Flashback ~_

After casting angel spells after angel spells while remaining hidden from the rampaging demons, she started to feel the mana drain. She didn't bring with her any recovery items as it was only supposed to be a leisure stroll. She smiled sadly as she imagined Lloyd lightly scolding her for her carelessness. Really, her husband was getting more and more similar to Kratos, both physically and mentally, as he matured. She quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts as they weren't needed for this battle.

Her heart clenched as she witnessed more people fell victim to the demons. There wasn't much she could do except casting spell after spell, hoping to save as much people as she could. Then she remembered, she had a spell even more powerful than Judgment, more powerful than her Mystic Arte, Holy Judgment. However, there was a catch to that spell. Colette knew time was of essence and she didn't have the time to think now.

She then imagined Lloyd, the man she loved with all her being, having a similar battle somewhere else and suddenly found the strength and resolve to stand firm to protect the people here till her last breath, something she knew Lloyd would do if he was here.

"Thy power floweth purely, ever unwavering." She began chanting the words and felt all the mana in her body started flowing towards the tip of her fingers.

"Accept my soul into thine embrace." She heard heavy footsteps approaching her and someone shouting her name, but she ignored it and concentrated on calling forth the remaining mana in her body for the final touch of her spell. Even the pink hue of her wings spreading from her back started to dull in color and the wings made of pure mana started flickering.

She felt someone grabbing onto her shoulder to stop her from finishing the spell. But they were too late for the spell was already finished. "Sacrifice!" Colette opened her now soulless blue eyes and saw Raine before her looking about to cry.

_Please, Professor, don't be sad. I only wanted to protect the world and the people in it._ Colette thought, even though she knew the other couldn't hear her, as she looked at the pain filled expression of her ex-teacher.

Then the world became dark as Colette lost her consciousness.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Not much to say for this chapter... except that it's another talkie chapter... with only the slightest bit of action in the end... hope that doesn't really bore you guys... I dunno, I for one favour dialogues over action scene, though only by a very tiny margin. And maybe due to the settings of this fic, long and boring dialogues is a must if I am to let readers get a better understanding of what's going on... or at least that's what I think...

A word about Colette's last spell. I don't know about others, but I for one have never used 'Sacrifice' when playing the game. Heck, I only started using it recently when I replayed the game just to know what the spell looks like. I mean, it's a spell that get Colette killed every time she casts it, and thats -0.5 grade or so... it's hard enough to earn grade in TOS already, I didn't need that extra negative points to lower it. I know there's an EX skill to counter it, but I want Colette to have other EX skills...

**Strawberry Eggs** – Thanks for your review and glad to see your review again, I was panicking that I would lose one of my favourite reviewers with not updating for so long... Back to topic, I didn't know my last chapter would be so confusing! Maybe it's because I have reread it so many times to make sure I got everything right that I didn't realise that some of the stuffs are a bit complicated... I will see what I can do to simply the explanations if I am to do more talkied chapters full of explanations in the future.


	8. The Breaking Point

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Breaking Point**

"Colette!" Raine shouted and watched helplessly as Colette went limp. The moment Colette finished the spell, the demons nearest to her suddenly started withering as small while lights appeared on them causing small explosions and the injured people in the vicinity started healing.

Raine only knew of the spell and its casting through some books she read about angels some time ago. This was the first time she had seen the effect of this spell and she was so surprised that her grasp on Colette slackened for just the tiniest moment and Colette's body slipped from her fingers as she started falling to the ground.

Zelos rushed to Colette's side and held onto her and prevented her unconscious body from hitting the ground. He unfurled his mana wings and the two angels started glowing.

"What was that?" Sheena, who had never seen Colette cast the spell Sacrifice before and didn't even know there's such a spell, looked at Colette and Zelos worriedly.

Raine regained her composure as the light enveloping Colette and Zelos started to fade. "Sacrifice is an angel skill that critically damages the enemies and heals others with the expulsion of _all _the mana in one's body." She knelt down and took Colette away from Zelos' now shaking hands as the red haired ex-Chosen suddenly fell backwards with a loud thud and sat on the ground with his hands supporting his body, his wings already disappeared.

"Zelos!" Sheena also knelt down beside Zelos and helped him sit up straighter.

Raine looked at Colette's slowly rising and falling chest and turned to look at Zelos, who was panting harshly. "I think Zelos just performed a mana transfer to save Colette."

"What!?" Sheena cried out as she remembered the two much older angels doing the same thing a long time ago and most importantly, she remembered the risk involved. "You idiot! You could have died!"

"And let little angel here die on her own?" Zelos asked playfully, though he was still having trouble keeping in his harsh breathing.

"No!" Sheena shouted. "That's... I mean..."

"I think what Sheena meant is that you could have told us before hand and we could have helped, you have neither the mana capacity or precise control of it as Yuan, not to mention that you are still recovering from mana depletion." Raine explained as she lowered Colette on the ground and went to check on Zelos, inwardly grateful to the man for his quick acting.

"Ow man, and now I'm even worse than the old man... I wonder if this is what Yuan felt when he did that..."

Sheena buried her head into the crook of Zelos' neck. "You idiot."

"Zelos, do you think you could get Colette out of here?" Raine asked after she finished checking over the red head's vitals.

Zelos shook his head. "I don't think I can get up right now. Give me some rest first and I may be able to move, but I don't think I can carry an extra person."

Raine turned around and saw demon bodies littering around them, having been significantly weakened by Colette's attack and slain by Regal and Richter when they arrived at the scene. "Sheena, could you take both Colette and Zelos to somewhere safe? It's better that I remain here and support Regal and Richter."

Sheena looked at Raine and nodded. Raine stood up and began making way to the two fighters that were battling against some other demons a distance away from them.

She took in the scene before her and began creeping even closer to the man and half elf while remained undetected by the demons. Once she thought she's close enough for her spell to take effect and had acquired a relatively safe spot, she started chanting the first support spell.

"Field Barrier!" Raine cried out and she, Richter and Regal all felt a surge of mana flowing through their body and the extra mana then lightly covered their bodies as if having an invisible coat as their armor. Not wanting to waste any timer, Raine began to cast another support spell. However, before she could even start her next spell, she saw two demons closing in on her.

She changed the spell she was going to cast to an offensive one, one that she had always used and practiced to the point that it could now be cast in less than two seconds. "Photon!" Light enveloped one of the demons and trapped it in a golden spherical light cage and restricted its movement. The cage exploded a while later causing damage to both demons. The one that was trapped disintegrated with the light cage while the other was blown backwards a few steps.

By the time the second demon recovered from the minuscule explosion caused by Raine's lowest level light spell and started advancing again, Raine already finished a second Photon spell. The light cage appeared again and encased the second demon. Another explosion and the demon was gone. Raine panted lightly. Although Photon was the lowest level light spell she knew and had it mastered such that she could cast it in a very short interval when needed, it was still a powerful mid-level light magic and needed much concentration to be cast in such quick succession.

Raine heard movement behind her and without even confirming what or who was behind her, she dove to her left. Her instinct had narrowly saved her from being smashed as she saw a troll slamming a huge axe down onto the spot she was just standing. However, her dodge wasn't fast enough to save her from being hit by the debris that flew her way when the ground was destroyed by the heavy attack creating a mini crater. She hissed at the pain caused when a larger piece of stone lodged itself into her thigh.

She had been fighting for so long that such injury wasn't enough to stop her, but it still considerably slowed down her movement. Luckily troll was not a speed type demon either and once she felt the distance between her and her attacker was far enough to buy her enough time for a quick healing spell, she pulled out the stone slab and knelt down.

She covered her hand over the injured thigh and began concentrating mana, not even bothering to waste time and mana for the other scratched she obtained just now. "Heal." Normally she would just use First Aid when in haste, but the wound was deeper than she first thought so she had to resort to the mid-level healing spell. She was about to get up from the ground when-

"Don't move! Dragon Dance!" Raine saw from her kneeling position Regal jumped over her with a two kick combo that landed on the face of the troll. Then using momentum from the second kick, he flipped backward in mid-air and kicked the troll squarely in the face of the troll again. The force of the final powerful kick sent the troll flying through the air and crash landed into two skeletal demons ten meters away.

"Thanks." Raine said as she got up from the ground and looked around. "Where's Richter?"

"The other side, he said he is better suited to fighting alone." Regal replied. He got into another fighting stance and narrowed his eyes at the oncoming enemies, ready to lash out and took down the monsters that dared invade his town.

Raine nodded and began concentrating again and a magic circle appeared below her. Seeing as only Regal needed the support spell to increase attack in the vicinity, Raine decided to use the single-target but longer-lasting spell. "Keenness!" The moment she shouted the word, Regal rushed forward and began tearing through the group of demons before them.

Finally left alone and confident that she wouldn't be interrupted anytime soon, Raine began casting her more powerful and ranged offensive light magic. "Ray!" A shining globe of white light appeared above one of the demons Regal was fighting and light beams were shot out of the globe in random directions and showered the area below. Most enemies that were hit disintegrated upon contact with the light beam. Those that were strong enough not to die with just being hit by the light beam were still significantly weakened by the magical attack and were later disposed of by Regal's powered-up attacks.

Nearly fifty demons were killed by the healer-fighter duo an hour later. However, it also took a lot out of both Raine and Regal and though reluctant, they agreed to rest for a while first before rejoining the battle. They looked around for a suitable place to rest and saw a barricade that was set up to fend off demons. Nodding to each other, the two fell back to behind the barrage and saw many people already there.

Some battle-worn and were apparently resting in-between fights like Raine and Regal, some acting as supports as they passed out bottles of water to others and treated the injured, some guarding over the barrage to make sure no demons broke their defense line. From behind the defense line, Raine also saw that apart from soldiers and guards, tourists and residents that could fight were also giving their best to drive out the invaders.

"How's the situation?" Regal croaked out as a woman passed a bottle of water to him and began drinking from it.

"Tidal Wave!" Raine averted her gaze from the conversing pair and saw demons being pushed back by a torrent of water that appeared just before the defense line. Once the water disappeared and the area was clear of monsters, people immediately began pushing forward the barricade.

"As you can see, the half-elf over there is helping us push forward the barricade with his magic." The woman replied and pointed to a red-haired man standing just behind the barricade. "I heard that it's a high level spell and he can't just fire them off one after another. I am sure it's only a matter of time before we drive all the monsters out."

Raine followed the woman's finger and wondered how she missed Richter when she and Regal came here. She put down the empty water bottle and went to help treat the injured. As she saved the man before her from bleeding to death with her healing magic, she knew that although it was clear they could win the battle, it would be a long night and she could only hope that tonight's casualties wouldn't increase any further.

* * *

He was running. He didn't know how far he had run as the scenery was the same, a black nothingness. He forgot how long he had been running for, he thought it must have been a very long time, for he felt himself getting heavier with each step he took. He even forgot what he was running from, just that he needed to keep running, or else... or else what? He couldn't remember. He couldn't hear anything, there was no sound even when his boots clashed harshly on the ground – if he could call the black nothingness beneath him ground – as he ran. He didn't know how fast he was running as he couldn't feel any wind on his face.

He felt like an eternity had passed when he finally stopped, his legs too tired to take another step. Then the same black nothingness that had been supporting his weight disappeared and he began to fall. He looked up and stretched his hands above him as he fell, desperately looking and feeling for some leverage he could grab to break his fall.

He felt more than saw light coming from below him and looked down. Normally people would want to escape the darkness to chase after any light source they could find. But for some reason he didn't want to go there, a voice screamed in the back of his mind that _that_ would be the last place he would want to go to, that something dreadful would happen if he went there.

He looked upwards again and had a strong desire to want to be trapped within the darkness above him instead, feeling that he would rather be trapped there for _eternity_. He screamed but couldn't even hear his own voice as he kept falling into the light and-

"Lloyd! Snap out of it!" A familiar voice shouted.

Lloyd opened his eyes and saw the Tower of Salvation before him.

"Finally! How can you sleep just like that." The voice shouted again, but this time Lloyd could hear the relief in it.

Lloyd looked down and saw the back of a dragon and that they were very high above the ground, above the forest that surrounded the Tower of Salvation, the symbol of hope _– despair –_ of the world. He briefly glanced behind him and saw a familiar mop of silver hair.

"Sorry Genis, I think I just didn't get enough sleep last night." Lloyd said, while trying very hard to remember why he didn't get enough sleep last night and what he had been doing if not sleeping.

Genis sighed. "I know, I doubt anyone had a decent sleep last night... but that didn't mean you could sleep while _flying a dragon_! We could have crashed!"

"Nothing happened, right? That's what counts." Lloyd said cheerfully and waved off Genis' accusation.

He looked ahead and saw the dragon Kratos and Colette were riding on. He let his gaze fell on the back of his childhood friend and the mercenary and felt something swelling in his chest. "... it's almost time."

Genis looked down at the forest beneath them. "Yeah... the world will be regenerated soon, right?"

"Yeah... soon." Although that's what he said, he couldn't help but have a feeling of something amiss and somehow couldn't take his eyes off Colette, or was it Kratos he was staring at? But why?

"When the world is regenerated, there won't be anymore people suffering like Marble."

"Yeah." Lloyd agreed absentmindedly.

"Are you worried about Colette?" Genis asked as he looked back up at the red clad swordsman's back.

"Yes... but... there isn't any other way... is there?" The words felt familiar and sounded wrong, but Lloyd didn't know why. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that it's not only Colette that he was worried about, but who else apart from Colette?

"Yeah..." Genis replied. The two friends fell silent after that, each thinking of what they were going to do after all this. Though in Lloyd's case, he had a vague feeling of already knowing what's going to happen next. But that's not possible, right?

He shook his head to rid himself of the ridiculous feeling when he heard Genis again. "Lloyd! Pay attention! The others are landing!" Genis shouted when he saw Kratos already landed his dragon and Sheena was struggling to land the one she and Raine were riding.

Lloyd rolled his eyes at his best friends' antics. "I can see that, no need to shout." He then followed the others' example and started landing their dragon. Once they landed and tied the dragon to a nearby tree, they approached Raine and Sheena, who were waiting for them in front of the Tower of Salvation.

Then he noticed the absence of the other two members of their party. "Where are Colette and Kra- Kratos?" He didn't know why, but it felt wrong when he said Kratos' name, like he wasn't supposed to call him by his name. But how else should he address the mercenary if not by name?

"Looks like they've gone in already. Let's hurry up." Raine said and the group of four walked up the stairs to the entrance of the Tower of Salvation and entered.

The first thing Lloyd noticed when he stepped through the entrance was that the Tower of Salvation was huge. It was even larger than when you look at it from the outside.

_Well duh, it's supposed to be the tower that extended up to the space to Derris Kharlan, of course it's huge._

Lloyd blinked. _What was that just now? Derris Kharlan?_

He rubbled his temples with his right thumb and middle finger as he felt an impending headache. He opened his eyes after a while and saw boxes of strange shape floating around.

"What are those?" He looked over at one of them - _no, don't look! -_ and saw the contents. "They're... bodies!?"

"Then those must be... coffins." Raine concluded as she looked at one with an unreadable look.

"Why are all these dead bodies here?" Lloyd asked, even though he had a feeling he already knew who those bodies belonged to and why they were here.

"They may be... all the Chosen that failed the world regeneration up until now." Raine drawled out slowloy.

"So if Colette fails, she'll wind up here with them... dammit!" Lloyd felt angry, but it wasn't because there was a chance for Colette ending up in one of the coffins. It was something else, something he couldn't place.

Genis glanced around at the coffins and looked at his friend's angry expression. "I'm worried about Colette. Let's hurry!"

"Yeah!" Lloyd shouted as he quickened his pace, all the while hoping that he could make it this time... _wait, 'this time'? _He shook his head to clear his irrelevant thought as the group stood on the warp circle and let it warp them to the next area.

As soon as Lloyd materialized at the destination, he saw Colette praying. A light descended from above and Remiel, the bastard angel – _did I just call Colette's father a bastard?_ – appeared before them.

"Now, my daughter. Release the final seal! In doing so, you will complete the final sacrifice of your human existence – your heart and your memory. By doing so of your own free will, you will become a true angel!" Remiel exclaimed as he spread his hands to his sides and smiled triumphantly at some invisible entity above him.

Sheena stared with eyes full of disbelief at the angel asking Colette to literally die. "What!?"

"Sacrifice her heart and memory!?" Lloyd gasped.

"Colette's going to forget about us!?" Genis shouted with barely concealed fear.

Raine just looked sadly towards Colette. "Colette's human life will now end, and she will be reborn as an angel."

"Professor Sage, what are you talking about!?" Lloyd stared at Raine, desperately hoping that this was all a joke and Colette didn't have to go through all that crap again – _wow, __wait there, what did he mean by that again? It's not like Colette had lost her soul before... or had she?_

Raine held her gaze with her student and Lloyd could see the grief in them. "Lloyd, I'm sorry. I promised Colette I wouldn't say anything. Colette will give up her life in order to regenerate the world. Becoming an angel means dying."

Remiel looked at his fellow half elf – _fellow half elf? Why am I thinking that, Professor Raine and Genis are both elves... and Remiel is an angel... so why's my mind telling me differently?_ "That's not quite correct. The Chosen's heart will die, and her body will be offered to the Goddess Martel. By removing her soul, Colette will revive the Goddess." He turned his gaze towards Genis. "This is the true nature of the world regeneration! The revival of the Goddess Martel... is the revival of the world itself!"

"That... that's..." That's rubbish! Was what he wanted to say, but somehow he couldn't bring himself to say it out loud. After all, who would call the regeneration of the world rubbish?

"Lord Remiel, we have heard that a world known as Tethe'alla lies parallel to Sylvarant." Raine said.

A look of annoyance briefly passed Remiel's face. "That is not for you to know."

"You kept it a secret because it is true, correct?" Raine countered.

Another brief flash of annoyance. "From whom did you learn of it?"

Sheena stepped up. "Can't Cruxis make both worlds peaceful?"

Remiel passed his gaze over the party before him before finally settling it on Colette. "If that is what the Chosen desires, she can lend her power to Cruxis by becoming an angel. Once the Goddess Martel is revived by the Chosen, the two worlds will surely achieve peace, just as the Chosen wishes."

Colette had a look of surprise on her face as she turned her hopeful gaze towards the angel as it asking him if what he said was true.

_No Colette! Stop looking at that lying bastard with tha- that look!_

Remiel looked at Colette in the eyes. "Is that true, you ask? You know why you have come here."

Colette had a look of resolve on her face as she nodded.

Sheena looked at Colette unbelievingly. "You can't... are you really planning to die!?"

Colette turned around and faced Lloyd and the others.

Lloyd walked up to stand directly in front of Colette. "Colette, stop! If you sacrifice yourself, your friends who love you... and your family... and... and me... we'll be all sad. It will be the same as sacrificing all of us!"

Colette just looked at Lloyd with a sad smile. He was going to pull Colette back and get her away from Remiel, from the Tower of Salvation, from all this crap, when Genis held onto his arms and pulled him away from Colette. "Genis! Let me go!"

"I don't want anything to happen to her either! But what else are we supposed to do? The people of Sylvarant are suffering, too!" Genis cried out and Lloyd could hear the clear desperation in his tone.

"But..."

Remiel stared at Lloyd. "The sacrifice of one single person, the Chosen, will save the world. Are you saying that you would choose the Chosen's soul over the entire world?" He stretched out his hand to Colette. "Now, Colette. Come join your father." Colette approached Remiel and a glowing magic circle emanates under her.

_Sacrificing Colette won't help this already twisted world!_

Lloyd shook Genis' hand off and approached Remiel. "Wait! Remiel! Is there really no other way? Colette's your daughter! Surely you don't really want her to die either!"

Remiel looked at Lloyd and smirked. "My daughter? Don't make me laugh. When I came down to play the role of guardian angel, you inferior beings just started calling me her father on your own."

"Wh-what?" Somehow Lloyd wasn't really surprised at the revelation, it's almost like he had been expecting it.

"I merely placed the Cruxis Crystal upon this sacrifice, who was selected to become Martel's vessel."

"Colette!" Lloyd shouted as he grabbed onto Colette's shoulders who had turned around to face him the moment she heard him shout her name.

_Lloyd, it's okay, I realized what was going on. Every time I met Remiel, I felt... that he was not my real father. But still, for some reason, I still feel like I want to cry._

"Colette! If you realized what was going on, then why-"

_You can hear my voice? _Colette took Lloyd's hand into hers and smiled happily towards him. _I'm so happy! I'll be able to say goodbye to you in the end._

"Colette, I'm sorry! I couldn't save you. I'm sorry! I promised I wouldn't make another mistake, but it looks like I have again..."

_No. Thank you, Lloyd. Because of you, I was able to find the courage to protect the world. Because of you, I was able to find the strength to live these sixteen years to the fullest. So please..._ Her body started rising up into the air.

"Colette!" All the occupants of the room, except Colette herself and Remiel, shouted.

_It looks like it's time... Goodbye._ Colette unfurled her wings as she continued to rise up into the air and closed her blue eyes. She opened them a while later, revealing red soulless pupils.

_No! It's the same as the last time!_

Remiel started to laugh like a crazy scientist. "I've done it! It's finally complete! Martel's vessel is finally compete! With this, I shall become one of the Four Seraphim!"

Sheena snapped out of her bewilderment at the whole sacrificing business after she heard Remiel's words. "Wait just a minute! What are you gonna do with Colette?" She demanded and narrowed her eyes, eyes full of rage, at the angel.

Raine furrowed her brows, unsure what's going on. "He's going to take her to heaven."

"You bastard! You'll pay for this! Cruxis, the angels, the Goddess Martel... it's all a big lie, isn't it? Let her go, now!" Lloyd shouted as he aimed all the hatred he could muster towards the angel, scenes of Remiel dying different horrifying and slow painful deaths started filling his mind.

_That's correct... let yourself be engulfed in darkness. This supposedly holy being is one of the sources of Colette's pain. Deal with it however you see fit... _A soft voice whispered in the back of his mind and Lloyd unsheathed both of his swords and pointed one of them at the angel.

"That I cannot do, for she is Martel's vessel." Remiel flew next to Colette and placed his left hand on her back. "This is Martel's new body which took years to complete." He raised his other hand towards the party, palm forward. "I have no use for any of you. Be gone."

Light formed in the angel's palm and a beam of light shot towards Lloyd. However, Lloyd had been expecting it – another mystery he told himself he would think about after all this was over – and jumped out of the way. He heard Genis cried out in agony and turned and discovered to his horror that the light beam hit his friend who had been standing behind him.

Due to the height difference, the beam that was supposed to hit Lloyd in the chest collided with Genis' head. Genis was blasted backwards and hit the pillar behind him with a loud crunching noise before dropping limply to the ground. A pool of blood began to form around him.

Then Lloyd felt something inside him _broke._

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**Author's Note:**

This chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but I wanted to put the other part of the Tower Scene in the next chapter. It may be a bit confusing here, but all will be explained in the next few chapters.

Many thanks to Strawberry Eggs again for your encouraging review! Hope you like this chapter too.

_Uploaded on 22 April 2013._


	9. The Desire to Destroy

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

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**Chapter 8: The Desire to Destroy**

Lloyd stared at the unconscious form of his friend. His mind blank as he just stood there doing nothing but staring. He vaguely heard Professor Raine and Sheena cried out but he just couldn't comprehend what was being said and he continued staring. Raine rushed to her brother's side and started healing him, Lloyd couldn't tell from the distance what his friend's condition was. All he knew was the large pool of blood and the desperation and despair etched on Raine's feature as she held onto her brother's hand and started casting healing spells after healing spells. Sheena was shouting at him to snap out of it but he couldn't focus on anything other than his best friend's unconscious body.

_No... it's wrong... it's not... it's not supposed to be like that! I wasn't supposed to dodge that attack... then Genis wouldn't... that's wrong! Genis is... Genis is! It's all his fault! He is going to pay! _Lloyd saw red as he turned to look at Remiel and saw his smug grin as he shot another attack at him.

_No, he didn't deserve a quick death. This time I will personally deliver a slow and painful death to this lying bastard._

He jumped into the air and avoided the attack. "Tempest!" He curled himself into a ball and started spinning horizontally with his swords pointing outwards as he dived towards the corrupted angel. Remiel jumped to the side to avoid the attack, leaving the Chosen as she was, knowing that the self-protection mechanism would kick in if needed. Lloyd landed where Remiel just stood and gently pushed Colette out of the battle field.

"Rising falcon!" He jumped backwards into the air and dived at his opponent again at a break neck speed. This time Remiel wasn't fast enough and the tip of Lloyd's sword grazed his shoulder.

Remiel hissed lightly and looked at his right shoulder and saw a tear on the clothing and red started seeping out from the not-so-shallow wound. "Inferior beings! How dare you hurt me!" Remiel shouted and charged at Lloyd.

However, he was stopped by a kick Sheena delivered to his face and crashed to the ground on his left. When he got up from the ground Sheena was already standing before him with her paper seal raised. "Pyre Seal!"

The attack hit him square on the chest and he was momentarily stunned in place. Then several paper seals gathered at Sheena's hand and suddenly exploded. Remiel was blown backwards by the small explosion. However, instead of crashing to the ground again, this time he merely skidded to a stop with the help of his wings. "Holy Lance!" Remiel shouted and spears of light appeared above Sheena. The spears shot down at the ninja with great speed, but Sheena was still faster and managed to move out of the way before the spears hit the ground. However, what she didn't see and expect was Remiel suddenly warping to behind her and began firing bolts of light in rapid succession at the back of the unsuspecting ninja.

When Sheena felt movement behind her and turned around to see five bolts of light racing towards her, she knew she didn't have enough time to dodge the attack and brought up her hands in a cross before her, prepared to block the oncoming light arrows with her bare arms. Just before the attack hit its target, Lloyd landed between Sheena and the arrows with his swords raised. Five loud clangs were resounded in the Tower of Salvation as he precisely knocked all the arrows away with his swords.

"Ray!" A globe of light appeared above the two fighters and light beams began shooting randomly downwards. Sheena made to move away but Lloyd suddenly grabbed onto her and stood firmly directly below the glowing sphere. Sheena looked at Lloyd questioningly as the the light beams shot at everywhere except at them. She was about to voice her question as to how Lloyd knew how to dodge this seemingly random attack seeing as they hadn't seen it before when Lloyd suddenly pushed her away and jumped backward himself. Sheena saw the last ray of light shot at the ground they were just standing at.

Remiel gritted his teeth as he saw how the teens easily dodged the high-level light spell and materialized his light bow again, prepared to fire off more arrows at them. However, before he could fire off his first arrow, Lloyd was already in front of him with his sword pointing towards him. "Sonic Thrust!" Remiel quickly brought up his bow to block the powerful thrust but the force of the thrust was so strong that the angel was sent sailing across the field. His wings didn't react in time to stop him from colliding with a pillar behind him. The pillar broke due to the impact and dust rose around the fallen angel.

Before the dust cleared, Lloyd dropped his swords downwards, their tips nearly touching the ground, before slashing upward with first his left sword followed by the other one. "Double Demon Fang!" Two projectiles left the tip of the swords and raced at the dust cloud. He was so sure of his opponent's position in the dust cloud that he failed to notice the blond materializing several meters behind him.

Remiel brought up his bow and was about to fire another rapid succession of arrows when he was interrupted again, this time by Sheena. The ninja had been expecting Remiel to pull a similar move at her friend and had been waiting for this precise moment. "Power Seal!" She swiped her paper seal at the angel and lightly drained him of his defense before ending the combo with a Pyre Seal.

The angel was sent flying forward from the explosion of paper seals again and looked up to see Lloyd was waiting for him with his sword raised. "Sword Rain!" Remiel quickly called forth his own weapon and struggled to block all the thrusts Lloyd was sending his way with his attack. Once Lloyd's attack finished and before he could start another one, Remiel whirled around with his palms out and light energy gathered in them, creating a mini cyclone of light that pushed both Lloyd and Sheena, who was rushing forward to help Lloyd sandwich the angel from behind, back a few steps.

"Let me show you the true power of the ultimate being!" Remiel summoned a field of Cruxis emblems filled with angel feathers underneath him. "Judgment Ray!" Multiple beams of light not unlike those in the spell Ray began raining down on the field. The range of this attack was only in his immediate surrounding, but it was still enough to hit both Lloyd and Sheena. Fortunately for Sheena, she was not as close to Remiel as Lloyd was and had the time to back step and only two of the light beams grazed her right shoulder and left leg.

Lloyd was not so lucky and was hit by several light beams and stunned in place, but for some reason those light beams didn't hurt as much as they looked. However, the momentary stun was enough for Remiel to catch brunette off guard and kneed hard at his gut, making the teen double over from the pain.

_But that's... also not as painful as I first thought. _Lloyd furrowed his brows as he realized most of the reason for his curling himself up was due to instinct and not the pain.

Sheena quickly jumped forward and somersaulted in the air and aimed a roundhouse kick at Remiel's head but only kicked air in the end as the angel disintegrated and materialized a distance away from them. The Tethe'allan touched the floor with all her limbs, like an cat landing on the ground. She got up from the ground and-

"Photon!"

- rushed to where Lloyd was still recovering and just in time pushed him out of the way as the light spell manifested. "Sheena!" Lloyd watched helplessly as a familiar golden light cage enveloped the ninja before exploding, leaving the injured girl dropping to the ground. Lloyd ran over to his friend's side and caught her before she hit the ground.

"And that's why you inferior beings will never be able to defeat me." The red Lloyd saw when Genis was down intensified as he glared at the crazily laughing angel.

"Laugh all you will, and we will get to see who's the inferior being here." The brunette said darkly and he suddenly dived at Remiel at a even faster speed than when he was using Rising Falcon. "Demon Fang! Double Demon Fang! Demonic Chaos!" He sent forth one blue projectile, then two, then three. Remiel skipped to the left to dodge the first one, then saw another two heading where he dodged to and skipped to the left again and was immediately hit by the last three shockwaves produced by Lloyd's combo.

He staggered backwards a few steps from the hit and saw the twin swordsman jumping towards him. He immediately flashed to the airborne boy's back, hoping to catch him off guard again. However, he didn't expect the twin swordsman to suddenly turn around midair. "Omega Tempest!" Lloyd curled himself up again and started spinning towards the angel with his swords pointing outwards. Remiel was hit by the high speed spinning razor disk like attack and was brought along with the teen into the air as the spinning disk that was Lloyd shot into the air after he touched the ground once, like a ball bouncing into the air.

The swordsman stopped the attack in mid air and let the battered blonde drop unceremoniously to the ground. Lloyd didn't give Remiel a moment to rest as the moment he landed, he jumped forward and somersaulted twice airborne and brought his leg down heavily at the just standing up angel's head – a dropkick, a move he didn't even know he knew... but somewhere in the back of his mind a voice supplied that he learned the attack from a blue haired man not long ago – and created a large crater on the ground as Remiel crashed into the ground with dust flying everywhere.

The dust cleared and Remiel coughed as he tried to get up from the ground but was held down again by Lloyd's foot. "Impossible... this... this isn't... supposed to... !" He gasped as Lloyd pierced his left palm with one of his sword and drove it to the ground and stomped on his stomach, hard.

Lloyd narrowed his eyes and glared darkly at the harshly panting angel. "What isn't supposed to happen? An angel, the ultimate being, like you isn't supposed to be brought down by a nameless kid?" Lloyd asked coldly. "No Remiel, you are wrong. So wrong in so many things." He twisted the blade that pierced the hand of the angel and Remiel screamed from the pain.

_No... that wasn't even a tenth of the pain I'm feeling right now. _Lloyd glared darkly at the screaming 'ultimate being' as he continued twisting his blade, his eyes full of cold fury.

"Inferior... beings!" Remiel choked out as he opened his free palm towards Lloyd. Another light beam came out of it and shot at Lloyd. Remiel smirked, knowing the attack would take out the worthless human in such a close range and... stared in disbelief as Lloyd used his other sword, a sword that was somehow glowing red, to block the attack and easily deflected it to the side, creating yet another explosion as the deflected attack hit the interior of the tower. Lloyd kicked his hand aside and stepped on it to make sure he couldn't attempt another attack again.

"That's the first thing you are wrong." Remiel was too shocked to notice his jaw was wide open as he stared at the wings that formed behind Lloyd's back. Wings that he had never seen before. Unlike the mana wings of the Seraphim, Lloyd's wings looked solid. However, the wings were longer and bigger than Remiel's and the other lesser angels in Derris Kharlan.

Lloyd heard gasps from different directions but paid them no heed as he was too focused at torturing to death a certain someone who had caused him so much pain. "You see." Lloyd began casually, though his eyes was full of distaste. "You are the inferior being here."

"No!" Remiel gasped. "Wha- what's tha- argh!" He screamed as Lloyd used his other sword to pierce his right thigh and pinned his leg to the ground.

"You! You son... of a... son of a bitch!" Remiel shouted at Lloyd and tensed up immediately after as he felt killing intent from not just the human-angel above him, but also another one hidden behind one of the pillars.

The barest of smile briefly passed Lloyd's face as he felt the second killing intent aiming at Remiel for the insult just now. Lloyd withdrew his killing intent and stared at the angel dully, noticing with satisfaction the pool of blood that was gathering underneath the bloody angel.

"That's the second thing you did wrong." A twist with the sword that was embedded in the thigh and another scream. "Insulting my mother is the highest crime in my book. And I'm not... as nameless as you thought." There was a dangerous glint in Lloyd's eyes as he said the last part.

He lowered his voice so that the only people who could hear him would be the angel underneath him and the one hidden behind the pillar. "I am the son of the man whose position you were trying to usurp, not that Mithos will ever consider giving a lowlife like you the position of a Seraph."

There was another barely audible gasp but once again, Lloyd paid it no heed as he lifted his foot that was stepping onto the angel's hand and kicked at the knee of Remiel's good leg hard, dislodging the joint there and bending it to an unnatural angle.

"And the final thing you did wrong," he began casually again, ignoring the screaming like it was just background music, "is hurting my friends!" He ground his foot onto the dislocated joint and pulled out the sword embedded in the thigh and blood started gushing out of the wound. He stabbed the now free blade at one of the wings and started dragging it across the wing, earning another ear splitting scream. Lloyd's eyes glowed red as he pulled back the sword again to prepare for the final blow.

However, before he could deliver the blow, Sheena held onto his arm. "No! Stop! Lloyd, this isn't like you! And what's all this about being an angel!?"

"This isn't like me?" Lloyd glared at Sheena. "How funny for you to say that when only nine months ago, you were planning my and Colette's demise." Sheena tensed up at Lloyd's word. "You don't know me, Sheena, at least not yet." Lloyd whispered. "But I guess you are right, I shouldn't just kill him off."

Although Sheena was feeling confused and hurt at Lloyd's words, she felt relief when Lloyd agreed he shouldn't kill Remiel... only to have her hope shattered with his next word. "No. Dying a quick death is too easy an escape for him. I promised myself I would let him die a slow and painful death this time." He chuckled darkly. "How silly of me to forget it just because of my blind rage. Thanks for reminding me that, Sheena."

Sheena widened her eyes and stared at Lloyd, too stunned and horrified at his words to say or do anything. The smile on Lloyd was wrong. It was never supposed to be like that. Lloyd was never supposed to do anything remotely evil... and yet this man, this stranger before her had said all those words while wearing Lloyd's appearance and his voice...

"Now, could you please let go of me so I can continue?" The seemingly innocent question sounded so wrong in Sheena's brain and all she could do was stood there and stared at the stranger known as Lloyd Irving.

Lloyd let out an irritated sigh as he noticed that the ninja was not going to move anytime soon and shook her off roughly. Sheena slid to the ground limply as she watched Lloyd kicked Remiel's side, earning a groan, and pulled out his other sword from the angel's palm. He stepped back from Remiel, who looked to Sheena nothing like an evil man who sprouted nonsense about being a glorified being but a tortured man waiting for his final sentence, and examined his work.

Sheena looked up at Lloyd and saw to her horror that there was a gleam of excitement and glee in Lloyd's eye as he looked the angel over, like a child looking happily at his handy work and deciding what best to do next to improve said work. Lloyd smiled that wrong and twisted smile again as he pulled back his sword again to strike at the angel. His blade was falling fast when a loud clang was resounded as Lloyd's sword clashed with another sword.

Lloyd snarled at the owner of the sword that blocked his attack. "What are you doing!?"

"Kratos!" Sheena shouted, not sure what to feel at the eldest man of their party. On one hand she was a bit mad at the mercenary showing up so late but on the other hand she was relieved at the arrival of one of the only people that might be able to talk some sense to the thickheaded boy.

"Dad! You are supposed to just stay where you were and let me kill the bastard!" Sheena blinked at the word 'dad', surprised at the revelation of the two being related in any way.

However, although already knew of their relationship, Kratos also had a brief look of surprise before the stony expression returned to his face and he narrowed his eyes at the boy before him. "Who are you? What have you done with Lloyd?"

Lloyd had the audacity to roll his eyes at his father's 'stupidity'. "What the heck are you talking about? Can't you recognize your own son? Oh wait, you can't, at least not until you saw mom's grave."

Sheena looked at the pair, not knowing what to think anymore. One moment an angel literally declared that he was evil and had been lying to them and leading their friend to death, then Lloyd suddenly started sprouting wings from his back claiming he was someone even higher up than the evil angel, then he revealed his dark desire for wanting to torture said angel to death, and now... now the mercenary their group had been traveling with, one that didn't even look to be thirty years of age, was Lloyd's father. That... that's just too much for her... what's going to happen next? That Kratos was the leader of an organization that had been planning to destroy the world?

Kratos tensed and glared at Lloyd even more fiercely than before. "The Lloyd I know would never hurt people just for the sake of it."

"Just for the sake of it!? Didn't you see what he did to Colette? What he did to Genis?" Lloyd returned Kratos' death glare with his own dark glare. "What is this all about anyway!? You weren't there for nearly fifteen years of my life and now you act like you've known me all this time?" Lloyd ignored the slight flinch and the brief look of guilty on his father. "And you are going to fight your own son to protect this bastard?"

"If that's what it takes to snap you out of it, then so be it." Kratos pushed Lloyd's sword away with all the strength he could muster.

Lloyd stumbled back a few steps and nearly fell down on his bottom if not for his wings started fluttering to help him balance, not expecting his father's sudden push, before regaining his footing. However, Kratos was already before him and hit Lloyd's gut with his sword hilt. Lloyd gasped as he felt the air in his lung being forced out of him – _why is this hurting so much more than before? -_ as he was sent flying backwards. He used his wings to steady himself as he skidded to a halt and started flying upwards. Kratos also unfurled his wings and flew upwards, chasing after Lloyd.

"You traitor! I thought I understood how you were just trying protecting me in your own bizarre way when you fought me and bowed your head to that crazy boss of yours!" Lloyd shouted.

Lloyd suddenly stopped and turned around and let gravity pull him to the ground. "Tiger Blade!" He held his sword above his head as he dived at Kratos at a very high speed and brought his blades down in a powerful downward slash as he neared his father. Kratos was confused at Lloyd's word but still held up his sword to block his son's attack. The three swords clashed together.

"But no! You had to deny me even my right to have my revenge!" Lloyd snarled at Kratos.

Still maintaining the sword's position, Kratos drove his knee into Lloyd's gut, who twisted away in the last minute and avoided another hit to his already hurting midsection. "Victory Light Spear!" Kratos didn't allow Lloyd even a moment to catch his breath as he slashed his sword horizontally at the twin swordsman and started spiraling upwards. Lloyd barely blocked the slash with his swords and was blown backwards due to the force of powerful finishing slash and was sent flying to the ground.

The auburn haired man followed after the flying boy with his sword out stretched. "Lightning Blade!" Lloyd evaded Kratos' thrusting sword as he tumbled to the ground. He flew into the air again and headed directly towards Kratos - "Thunder Blade!" - but his path was intercepted when his father aimed the mid level lightning spell at him. He struggled to continue flying but his wings failed him as they were paralyzed by the electricity that still lingered on them and dropped to the ground again. Lloyd twisted his body around so he could land with his feet.

"Grave!" The moment Lloyd's feet touched the ground, rock spikes came up from the ground and hit him from every directions.

"Guardian!" A green sphere enveloped Lloyd and lessened the damage the magic dealt to him.

He looked up and just in time saw his father diving towards him and rolled to the side to dodge the man. The moment he got to his feet he slammed down his swords to the ground, knowing without seeing that the elder of the two was coming towards him. "Demonic Circle" The shockwave surrounding Lloyd produced by the attack forced the advancing man to step back. If Kratos was surprised at the high level Artes Lloyd performed during their fight and how well Lloyd was holding up to him, he didn't show it.

"Hell Pyre!" Kratos slashed at his son, who back stepped and got out of the way, before jumping into the air and turning a full circle and three small fireballs came at Lloyd from the tip of his sword.

Lloyd once again back stepped to avoid the fireballs but Kratos had been predicting his movement and delivered a well aimed kick at the brunette. His boot connected with the side of Lloyd's head with a loud thud and the red clad swordsman crashed into the pillar to his right and destroyed it with the impact. Lloyd was coughing and recovering and going to get up from the rubble when he felt the tip of Flameberge pointing at his throat. He looked up to see his father staring down at him with disapproval.

"Why... I won before...even if you aren't already injured this time, I have improved a lot in the past years... so why can't I..." He muttered and Kratos just looked at him with a bored look, though his mind was racing from all the things Lloyd had said. Kratos didn't think his memory was that bad and he was sure he didn't remember Lloyd ever winning him during their training sessions, and what was it about Lloyd already knowing about Cruxis and his role in it, if what he deduced from the enraged ravings of the boy was correct?

"Lloyd, are you going to stop now?" Though it's a question, Kratos still said it with an air of authority that made it clear that he wasn't taking 'no' as an answer.

"Stop? Ah... you mean Remiel..." Lloyd narrowed his eyes as he glared at his father. _His son was suffering from all the pain that bastard caused and he was concerned about me killing that bastard!?_

"I see... so that's it..." Kratos raised an eyebrow at Lloyd's incoherent words.

"You never did anything the first time around!" Lloyd began shouting agitatedly at his father and ignored the prickles he felt and the burning smell he smelt as the tip of Flameberge left small burnt wounds on his neck due to his movement. "Just because Mithos was there and you were afraid of him killing your only son if you dared raise a finger at him, even though he already had every intention to kill me!"

Kratos looked at Lloyd with confusion and alarm, confused at what he was talking about and alarmed at the fact that he knew so much about Cruxis, even calling Yggdrasill with his given name so casually. He also looked a bit sick as he noticed how Lloyd was simply too agitated at the moment to notice or simply decided to ignore the burning wounds Flameberge was inflicting on his bare neck as he thrashed around while shouting.

"And now! Just because I want to kill Remiel and avenge Genis you suddenly act all fatherly towards me! What the hell is wrong with you!?" Lloyd shouted angrily at Kratos.

"Lloy-"

"Don't you 'Lloyd' me! You had had your fun killing Kvar to avenge mom! So why can't I do the same!" Lloyd looked on the verge to break down.

Kratos lowered his sword slightly as he began to feel numb at Lloyd's words and rage, and also because he didn't want his son to unnecessarily injure himself further. He was expecting his son's fury towards him, but for the wrong reason. He didn't understand what was going on, except that Lloyd knew that he was his father and was hating him because he interfered with his revenge towards Remiel, not because he was working for Cruxis and betrayed him... though he did call him traitor just now...

"Why!? Dad!?" Lloyd looked like a broken child to Kratos as he shouted at the top of his lungs at his father. "I just wanted my father to stand by my side and support me for whatever choice I make... isn't that what you told me before? But no! Even after all this, you decided to leave me and go to Derris Kharlan!"

"Lloyd." Kratos had by now fully lowered his sword due to the sight before him and the words directed at him. His head was beginning to hurt as he thought of the things that happened and the strange things his son had been blabbering out since they entered the Tower of Salvation, and tried to think of the words to say to his distressed and enraged son. "I'm-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as Lloyd used his momentary confusion to slip past his defense and ran his sword through Kratos' heart. Blood splattered around and some got onto Lloyd's hands and face. Kratos looked at the boy that, despite hating him for reasons he couldn't fathom, accepted him as his father and openly called him dad. He didn't know what to think as he noticed his son was smiling that deformed smile again. His mind was blank as he felt his life slowly slipping away.

He smiled towards his son one final time and Lloyd felt something clenching in his chest as he stared at his father's sad smile. "Forgive me, Lloyd, my son." Kratos closed his eyes. "... it seems I failed again... Anna..."

He felt a sharp pain in his chest the moment Kratos went limp on his sword. His father began falling towards him sliding against the blade running through his body preventing him from dropping to the ground and eventually slumped against his shoulder. He felt immense pain in his head and around his chest area. He clutched his head with his hands and started screaming, letting his swords and Kratos' body drop to the ground with a loud thud that resonated in the once grand but now devastated Tower of Salvation.

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**Author's Note:**

I can't believe I killed off Kratos... though it's not real... writing this chapter makes me have a sudden urge to write something about the father-son interaction between Kratos and Lloyd, but I need to tell myself to stay firm and not start another story again, at least not until I finish one of the fics I am currently writing...

So, this chapter is full of actions. I guess you could say that this chapter is the result of me trying out my skills at writing actions, though I know there's still room of improvement for that. I just hope that it's not too action heavy :P

I don't know if anyone noticed, I make it so that the title of this chapter is a direct opposite to the title of Ch.6: The Resolve to Protect. In Ch.6, we have Colette with her resolve to protect, and in Ch.8, we have Lloyd with his desire to destroy.

And I gained two more reviewers! Thanks for the reviews!

**Strawberry Eggs –** To tell the truth, I myself favor reading characters conversing than action scenes and sometimes tend to skip the fighting scenes when reading some of the fanfics with heavy action scenes. But after your first time saying my fighting scenes look ok, I started paying more attention to other's action scenes to hone my own skills at writing it. The fighting part written in Raine's POV in last chapter and the one in Colette's POV in the chapter before weren't included when I wrote out the draft. I was still experimenting with it and my original thought was 'why not put it here to make the chapter longer if people think I write passable action scenes?' I am glad you like it.

**SerenPhenix** – I am glad you find my story interesting, even said that it's one of the best fanfics you've seen for TOS & TOS2! I am not confident enough to say it will keep on getting more and more interesting in the future, but I will try my best to make it interesting! So stay tuned for the coming chapters!

_Uploaded on 5 May 2013._


	10. The Broken Mind

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

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**Chapter 9: The Broken Mind**

Lloyd started stepping backwards unconsciously to get farther and farther away from his father's corpse. His vision blurred from the tears threatened to fall and he screamed and screamed at the top of his lungs. One of his hand was clutching his head while the other thrashed around like a mad man, as if fending off an invisible enemy. After what felt like an eternity to the boy but in reality only several minutes, the screaming ceased as the pain subsided a little and Lloyd closed his eyes and panted harshly. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around.

He saw the devastated state of the Tower of Salvation, resulted from the fight between him and Remiel and him and Kratos. He saw Genis lying lifelessly on a pool of blood with Raine staring lifelessly at her brother's corpse. He saw Colette staying where he pushed her to moments after the first battle started, staring soullessly at the destruction before her without any expression, though for some reason Lloyd could hear her crying. He saw Sheena curling up into a fetal position on the ground trembling violently with Corrine whispering quietly into her ears.

He felt bile rising up as he saw the quivering pile that was once a glorified being on another pool of blood. He started feeling nausea and quickly averted his gaze to prevent himself from vomiting. Then he saw it, he saw his father lying on the ground, with one of his swords impaling him, straight through his heart. One of the heroes of the Ancient Kharlan War, one of the Four Seraphim of Cruxis, one of the oldest being in the world and... one of the only ones he could proudly call family, looking so broken as he lied on the ground, dead.

_No! _He gasped as the burning pain in his chest returned.

_What... what's the meaning of... of this?... I wasn't... I was only... I didn't mean to kill him... _Lloyd's breathing became faster and shallower as he took in the still form of his father.

_He isn't supposed to die here... no! He is supposed to go to Derris Kharlan! He is supposed to... to stay away from me... yes..._ _at least I won't be able to hurt him if he's on Derris Kharlan... he... he should have left me... he didn't deserve... this... I … _Lloyd was hyperventilating as he stared at his father's sad yet peaceful smile that would permanently be etched on his face.

_I don't deserve to be his son... I... I... _His pupil dilated and he started to lose focus.

_I should never have been born. _

Something flashed before him and he looked up to see a familiar large purple sword hovering between him and his father's unmoving figure.

_Use it. _A voice from within his mind said. _You can use the sword's power to undo all this._

"I... I can?" Lloyd asked, hope started to fill his being at the thought of being able to right all the wrong he did, being able to give his father, no, him, another chance to live with his only blood relative again.

_Yes. All you need to do is hold it with your hands and say the word. _

Lloyd stared at the sword. The sword that he felt was calling out to him. The sword that was his only way out of this nightmare. His feet began to take a step then another towards the sword. However, he was stopped when something struck the ground between him and the sword.

"Lloyd! Stop! Don't listen to it! This is all a lie!"

_Yes... it's all a lie... my life... my whole life... it's just a lie... _Lloyd stared at the newcomer without really looking. _A lie... _The words resonated within his mind like a broken record as he seemingly looked past the being before him like they were transparent and continued walking towards the sword like a mindless puppet.

"Stop being so useless!" The newcomer barked out at the broken man. "Remember where you were before all this began!"

He paused at the word 'useless' and turned his head so that the one that just called him useless was in his line of sight. Focus began to return to his eyes and his broken mind tried to place the man before him.

Long flowing blond hair that reached his hip, icy blue eyes so cold that might very well freeze anyone up with just a stare, white clothing that enveloped him from head to toe, large and colorful mana wings spreading behind him. Then Lloyd remembered. This was the leader of Cruxis, the reason his mother was dead, the reason Colette became a soulless puppet, the reason his father was in this miserable state and died thinking he failed his son even though it's the other way round... and the reason he was born.

"Yggdrasill!" Lloyd growled like a cornered and enraged animal as he held his fist up. The only thing in his mind was killing the man, his source of mystery, before him.

He ran forward and in his state of mind, only managed to clumsily throw a punch to Mithos who then caught it effortlessly. He tried to pull his fist from the blonde's grip but Mithos wouldn't let go so he started punching the half elf with his remaining free arm and kicking at him with his legs. However, all his attacks were unorganized and Mithos easily blocked all of them and pinned him to the ground with just a twist in his arm.

"Dammit Lloyd, it's me! Mithos! Not Yggdrasill!" To tell the truth, even Mithos wasn't sure what he was talking about at this point. Mithos Yggdrasill was Mithos and not Yggdrasill? What a joke.

"Stop! Lloyd! Listen to me! I know you are still somewhere in there! Don't go all crazy on me! Think of Colette!"

But that only enraged Lloyd even further. "Sorry, my bad, but I wasn't talking about the one here! Think of your wife! The one that is waiting for you to go home! Think of Kratos! The real one, not some fake that couldn't even avoid such a direct attack! What would he say if he knew you fell for something as petty as an illusion!"

However, none of those words have any effect on Lloyd as his mind was already too shattered to register the word of the man that, at least in his mind, was to blame for all the miserable things that happened to him.

"Think of... think of... argh! What do you want me to do just so you can call this nonsense off!?" Mithos knew there was one thing he could do, to revert back to his adolescence form, not that he knew if it would do more harm or good, but they were in Lloyd's memory and there's nothing he could do except stuck to his adult form just as Lloyd remembered during his first visit to the Tower of Salvation.

"Verius! Help me! I mean help him! There's no reasoning with him right now, especially when I am the last person he wants to see!"

_Mithos, are you sure? If I do that now, you-_

"It doesn't matter! We don't have time! We need to hurry before the Renegades come!" Mithos just wanted to end all this, preferably before the Renegades of Lloyd's memory came.

Who knew what sort of twist it planned for Lloyd? An illusionary Botta knocking the boy out and took him to the Renegade base in Triet and left his other illusionary friends to die? An illusionary Yuan finally breaking Lloyd's mind into pieces with his annoying speeches?

He didn't want to know and didn't want to deal with it. He just wished he could finally rest, who knew sewing back the mind of someone that was on the brink of going into insanity and pinning down a crazy person that was fighting him tooth and nail could be this tired?

Although Mithos couldn't see, he knew Verius nodded and agreed to do as he asked. He felt something leaving him and passed to the struggling boy underneath him through their linked arms. He started to feel his body getting lighter and his eyelids heavier. However, despite how tired he was starting to feel, he still gave his all to hold onto consciousness, he had to know it was working and there's still something else he had to do first. After a while, the struggling ceased and Lloyd dropped unconscious. Then he found it, the remnant of the demon that latched itself onto Lloyd's mind.

Mithos extended his remaining mana into Lloyd's body and carefully drew out the already dead demon into his own soul. He had a chilling feeling when the remains of the demon entered him. It was supposed to be harmless, taking in a dead demon. Mithos knew it was just his mind rejecting the unknown but the feeling was still uncomfortable. However, he needed to do this to make sure the demon dissipated with him so Lloyd could recover faster.

After what felt like an eternity to the ex-leader of Cruxis, he finished the tedious task of drawing out all of the demonic aura from Lloyd's mind. After another minute or so, Lloyd slowly opened his eyes and looked up at a semi-transparent Mithos, who was still in his adult form, smirking at him.

"Took you long enough, useless human." With that, Mithos closed his eyes and vanished.

* * *

_~ 14 days ago ~_

News of the tragedy in Altamira traveled fast. Within hours after the crisis was averted, all the cities, and nearly all the people that resided in Aselia knew of the invasion. However, what was unsaid to the general public was where exactly the invaders came from and who they were. There were many different views on the matter. Some people were horrified that Altamira, one of the most advanced city of the world, suffered from an invasion, some were relieved that the attack had ended and Altamira still stood in the end, some voiced their concern of other cities being invaded in the not far future. The governments never said anything about other cities being targeted, but even to the untrained eyes, it was clear that there was a very high probability of that and all cities were in high alert since then.

"Genis! Presea!"

The two looked at the door where the shout came from and within moments, the door burst open revealing a panting Marta. "I have news of Raine! She's in Altamira when it's invaded and now she's tending to the injured people in the hospitals there!" Marta exclaimed the moment she recovered from her running.

"Sis is alright..." Genis muttered. He suddenly turned to his left to where Presea was and hugged his girlfriend with much enthusiasm. "Raine is safe!" He exclaimed again as he held onto Presea tightly and buried his face into the pink haired woman's neck.

The last time they had heard about Raine was when Tenebrae, who disappeared two days ago, informed them of his involuntary leave that left the half elven healer pursuing the culprit of the fire in Palmacosta alone. And that was nearly a week ago.

"Yes, Genis." Gentleness and love shone in Presea's eyes as she returned her lover's embrace, also feeling relieved now that they knew Raine was safe.

Still holding onto the now quietly sobbing from happiness half elf, Presea turned her head around to look at the nurse. "Thanks for telling us that. Did you also hear anything about Sheena and the others?"

Marta frowned. "No. I only knew Raine is alright because Altamira sent a request to our hospital requesting medical supplies, though we have our own problems and couldn't give any to them, and I overheard the messenger talking about a silver haired half elven woman being one of the lead healers over there."

"I see. How's Emil? Any sign of him waking up?"

The frown intensified. "Yes, but-"

"Marta! I told you not to walk so fast! It isn't like anyone's going to drop dead if you don't tell them of the news about Raine immediately anyway." A very familiar yet at the same time not so familiar voice called from behind Marta.

"Sorry, but I want to tell them as soon as possible." Marta turned around and said apologetically. She then rushed to the owner of the new voice. She held out her hands to help the man walk but the helping hands were snapped away.

Genis, having stopped his silent sobs the moment the fourth voice joined their conversation, joined Presea in looking at where Marta ran off to and saw Emil, no, not Emil, but Ratatosk, judging from his tone and red eyes, walking towards the Castaginer household with a clutch in his hand supporting his body.

* * *

"Report." The man with long blue haired that reached his waist and was tied at the end said as he tried to keep his eyes open and maintain an upright posture despite being tired as hell. He was so tired that he had no doubt if not for his sheer will to complete his work, he would have collapsed into a deep slumber hours ago.

"All of the fire was extinguished ten minutes ago. The workers estimated that it would take at least five weeks to clear the wreckages."

"What about casualties?"

"We didn't find any dead bodies since the last report. There were forty three injured humans, three elves and six half elves, but none are in critical states. Those that are too injured to walk and require immediate medical treatment are being sent to Medical Center Three right now while the others were given basic first aid and directions to Medical Center Two."

Regal nodded. "Any other thing to report?" He asked as he noticed that the man was still there.

"It's... about the corpses... we don't have the place to put them all in to wait for relatives or friends to take them away for burial."

Regal closed his eyes tiredly and breathed deeply as he thought about it. There were one hundred and sixty three corpses. In just twelve hours, the death toll had hit a hundred and fifty! This was the first time Regal dreaded Altamira being such a paradise to attract so many people to come. For Origin's sake, it was only the eastern part on the edge of the city that was under attack, and it already affected nearly five hundred lives!

It's a good thing that Regal had installed three medical centers in the city. Although there still wasn't enough room to fit in all the injured people, he could just convert some of the hotels into pseudo medical centers, something he heard from Raine that Palmacosta had been doing. Still, it's different to convert a hotel into a place for medical treatment for the injured and to convert a hotel into a place for storing _corpses._ But in this case, it couldn't be helped.

Regal opened his eyes and looked at the man before him. "Empty out West Eagle and use it for that. We need to respect the dead." West Eagle was one of the cheapest hotel in Altamira, not because of the facility in it not being top tier – even the worst hotel in the city was a three and a half star hotel – but because of it's location. It was situated near the western edge of the city and farthest away from the amusement park and the casino.

"Yes sir." The man gave a quick bow and went to work.

After the workman left his office, Regal leaned back into his office chair. It was nearly thirty hours since the 'demon invasion', as the news dubbed, ended. To Regal, the last thirty hours could be concluded in two words: chaotic, tiring. After they fought off the demons, which took them nearly twelve hours just to do so, Regal started shouting orders after orders and it was only after nearly another five hours, and with the help of Sheena and Raine, Richter being too tired from all the casting of the high level water spell, that order was finally restored.

Then Regal was forced to go back to his office and started issuing orders from there while dealing with lots and lots of paperwork, which was mostly about damage control, and answering calls from other cities like Flanoir and Meltokio. They agreed that Flanoir was the city that was most likely to get a demon invasion after Altamira, seeing as how these two cities are the closest to the Otherworldly Gate – it wasn't common knowledge that the Otherwordly Gate provided passage to the demonic realm, but at time like this, it's only fair to share as much information with the rest of the world as he could. After that came the two things the duke wanted to deal with in such situations the least: political stuff and the media.

Regal had devoted his life to his company. He was prepared to work overnight to avert any crisis his company faced and would face in the future. But never did he imagine working for thirty hours nonstop, add to it that he didn't sleep much the two nights before either due to the arrival of Colette and the others, then all the fighting against the demons, for something like a demon invasion. Altamira was a city for entertainment, though it still had its own military which was much smaller compared to other larger cities like Palmacosta and Meltokio, the city and the people in it were simply not prepared for anything like an all out attack.

It would only be five more hours till he could rest. Once the supplies from Sybak, one of the only cities that was close enough and had enough medical supplies to spare, arrived and he organized the distribution of it to the medical centers, he would finally be able to get his well earned sleep.

There was a knock on the door and Regal muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'not having time to relax' before telling whoever it was outside to come in. The door to the office opened and in walked his adoptive daughter.

"Dad, you okay? You look like a zombie." Alice asked after she noticed how exhausted his father looked, and how it made him seem much older. She knew he was already over forty five, but usually he looked to be in his late thirties or at most early forties, right know he looked to be in his late fifties with all the dark lines under his eyes.

Regal shook his head. "I will get some sleep later. How's the others faring?"

"Raine said that Colette and Zelos are going to wake up in another few days or so. She herself had been going in and out of the medical centers to offer as much help as she could, Sheena left for Mizuho just twenty minutes ago, Richter was helping with the wreckage clearing team and Dylan was spending time with the children that lost their family..." Alice closed her eyes and resisted the urge to cry as she recalled her visit with Dylon to the now orphans.

"Alice, come here." Regal noticed his daughters' sadness and walked to stand beside his desk waved for Alice to come over.

Alice wordlessly went to her father who embraced her when she had gotten close enough.

"It's alright, Alice. If there's nowhere else they could go to, they can stay in the orphanage here. And even if they can't stay in the orphanage here, I will make sure the places they are sent to will treat them well." Regal felt Alice hold on his shirt tightened as she started to sob.

Alice was ripped from her kind and loving parents due to an unfortunate accident and was sent to the Sybak Hillside Orphanage that never treated the children there well, in fact, they didn't treat them like people. The ownership of the Sybak Hillside Orphanage was transferred to someone else after Regal adopted her and heard of the horrible acts of the previous owner and the orphanage became a much better place ever since. But old scars tend to resurface, especially since it's only six years since she escaped the horrendous treatment, and Alice felt her heart went out to Dylan and the other children that lost their parents due to the demons.

As Regal held onto his adoptive daughter, he thought about the inevitable war between mankind and the demons if they couldn't find a way to deal with the seal on the door to Niflheim soon and how many children would lose their homes and parents if war were to break out. He remembered Sheena telling him about the war fought between all life forms on Aselia and the demons in Niflheim and how devastating that war was. However, no matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be no way for them to do anything right now.

He hated how powerless he was in this dire situation and could only pray that the others, namely Lloyd and Ratatosk, and maybe Emil, Sheena and Raine, could find a way to prevent the world from going into another war again.

* * *

_~ 13 days ago ~_

"So Emil's staying inside the mind for the time being to focus at recovering the lost mana for Ratatosk while Ratatosk help us out with the current situation?"

"I guess that's the drift of it." Marta frowned as she said with an air of uncertainty and rested her gaze on the meditating Summon Spirit. She sighed. "I don't really understand what was going on either... and Ratatosk just answered my questions with vague answers... and I haven't seen Tenebrae since three days ago..."

The other two occupants in the room also followed Marta's example and watched the Summon Spirit meditate. After the pair came back to the house, without answering any of the questions directed at him, Ratatosk found a spot in the master bedroom, sat down cross legged on it and started meditating. It's been nearly a whole day since the Summon Spirit went into that semi-conscious state, leaving Marta to answer the curious questions of Genis and Presea to her best ability, which wasn't much. They even have to hide from Emily when she came home from the nursery yesterday the fact that her father was back as it was not really Emil, but Ratatosk that was back, and it wasn't helping that none of them knew what exactly was going on.

Another few minutes of silence passed with the three just staring at Ratatosk not knowing what else to do when Marta suddenly got up from her seat. "I am going to the nursery to fetch Emily."

The moment Marta left the house, Genis felt mana gathering at the place where Marta just sat and stared intently at that spot. Noticing the slight movement of her boyfriend, Presea followed his gaze and also stared at that spot, though to be fair, the human couldn't feel mana and could only stare in the general direction the half elf was looking at.

She was about to ask what Genis felt when she saw black smoke swirling. The black smoke gathered together and formed the shape of a large cat. Within seconds Tenebrae was floating in front of the young couple. Before either of the two could say anything to the finally reappeared Centurion, they saw Ratatosk opened his blood red eyes.

Tenebrae bowed his head towards Ratatosk who was rising up from the ground. "I am glad to see that you are awake, my Lord."

Ratatosk nodded at his most loyal servant before turning to Genius and Presea, who were obviously waiting for answers but decided to let Ratatosk take his time to tell them what happened. However, it was Tenebrae that started the explanation. "When I left, it wasn't due to me being too weakened and needed to revert to core form as I am sure you were thinking of. I had been gathering the remaining mana of darkness left by Karas and when I felt that I had gathered enough, I gave my mana to Lord Emil and Lord Ratatosk to boost his mana level so he could awaken."

Ratatosk held up his hand and Tenebrae obediently stopped explaining. "Don't tell Marta what I am about to tell you." He paused and waited for the two's response. Presea and Genius glanced at each other at the unusual request as if silently communicating with their eyes. Though still unsure what this was about, they could both feel the gravity of the situation and after confirming with each other, they looked at Ratatosk and nodded solemnly.

Satisfied with the two's answer, the Summon Spirit began his explanation. "When my core was destroyed, most of my mana was lost and through the connection between the two of us, I retreated back to the depths of Emil's mind to rest. It would have taken me at least half an year to recover enough mana to at least be able to take over like I am doing now, but Tenebrae and Emil hastened my recovery by giving up their mana. I was able to once again awaken Tenebrae here and not in the Temple of Darkness due to all the residue mana of darkness that is still lingering in the surrounding."

"What about Emil? What do you mean by him giving up his mana? The two of you- the two of you are one and the same, right?" Genis asked, despite already having a feeling of dread of where this was going.

"Although we are one and the same, we are also two separate entities. When I was divided into my physical and core form- no, even before that, the being known as 'Emil' was already his own person. We were just sharing the same body at the time. The personality known as Emil was able to fully separate from me by having his own body to live in. We still have a special connection because the mana that supported him came from me. However, since Emil was just to continue his life as a normal human whereas I am to help Richter seal the entrance to Niflheim and to separate the mana from the world, only part of my mana was flowed to Emil while I, that is my core form, kept the majority of it. When I was within Emil's mind, the small amount of mana he had wasn't enough to support the consciousness of the both of us and so the body went into a coma under the pressure."

There was something akin to sadness washing over Ratatosk's feature as he continued after a slight pause. "Even with the mana Tenebrae gave me, it would still take me, or our body if you are to take it the other way, at least two more months to gather enough mana to support both of our consciousness. But time is something we lack in the current situation. Emil knew what happened through me and understood the gravity of the situation... and he willingly gave up the mana that held his consciousness together to further hasten my awakening."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I know I am cruel... moments after Lloyd's predicament was explained (well... somewhat explained... but I know most, if not all of you would know what's happening to him now), we have this mess about Mithos and Emil disappearing... well, they always say that it's the darkest before sunrise, so yeah, I guess this fic will just continue spiraling downwards till God knows when :P

My original plan was to set a nice pace and update once every fortnight from now on... but sometimes I just have so much on my mind that I manage to get a few chapters done in just one week and don't want to keep my readers waiting for too long... so yeah, beware of irregular update intervals from now on and pray that I won't suddenly go vanishing for a long time due to sudden writer's block XD

Thanks for the encouraging reviews again and see you next time^^

_Uploaded on 13 May 2013._


	11. The Lost Entity

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 10: The Lost Entity**

_~ Unknown timeline ~_

"How long do we still have to wait?" Emil asked worriedly as he stared at the white nothingness that was his and Ratatosk's shared mind-scape.

"Six months at most." Also staring at the blank mind-scape, though with sharper eyes, Ratatosk replied with a more confident tone. "I can't even communicate with my Centurions. Though if they didn't return to their core form when my core was destroyed, they would know what to do to hasten our recovery."

"I'm sure even if all the Centurions disappeared, Marta would know what to do. She was the one that hatched the cores of the Centurions, she can do it again."

Ratatosk shook his head. "No, she lost the power to do that when my core was removed from her forehead. We need an alternative method this time."

"There- there's also Lloyd and the others. I- if Marta doesn't know what to do, she will ask for help from them and together they will figure something out." Emil became more hopeful as he finished his sentence.

"I am not so sure about Lloyd."

Emil looked sad at his alter ego's statement. "Why? I thought you already accepted him and my other friends?"

Ratatosk looked at Emil in the eyes as he righted the misunderstanding. "I have acknowledged them a long time ago. I am only saying that they might have other problems at hand and wouldn't be able to help us."

Emil blinked. "Other problems?" Then he gasped at he understood what the Summon Spirit meant. "Right, if they knew about your Core being destroyed, they would need to find a way to seal the door to the Underworld again."

Ratatosk closed his eyes. "Only if the door isn't opened and the demons aren't wreaking havoc in the world yet. But no, I am talking about Origin."

"Origin?"

At the confused tone, Ratatosk remembered that Emil was never told how the world was split into two and later reunited as one with the Eternal Sword and the sword's relation to the Summon Spirit of Birth. He then decided that a simplified version would suffice for now.

"Do you remember when Lloyd's Material Blade would sometimes merge together to form a purple board sword during battle?" Emil nodded. "That is the Eternal Sword, a sword that was forged by Origin, the Summon Spirit of Birth. I believe the female ninja, Sheena, holds a pact with Origin and can use his power while Lloyd was acknowledged by Origin as the wielder of the Eternal Sword and can use it's unique power. In fact, it was that unique power that allowed Lloyd to reunite the worlds."

Emil blinked and Ratatosk could see a hint of hurt in his eyes. He could comprehend what Emil was feeling right now, Emil had been friends with Lloyd and the others for over ten years already but they had never told him the truth behind the regeneration of the world. Ratatosk himself was asleep during the four thousand years that the world was divided into two and didn't know of the happenings in between when he first woke up after the world became one again. However, both him and Richter learned of the truth during their time in Ginnungagap from Verius who thought that it's only fair to bring his fellow Summon Spirit up to date.

Emil shook his head to clear the hurtful feelings that threatened to surface. "So what about Origin?"

"I'm not exactly sure myself. Origin is also known as the King of Summon Spirit and has an unique link to all other Summon Spirits. But I couldn't feel that link anymore."

"M- maybe that's because your core was destroyed?" Emil suggested.

"No, I can still feel the link, albeit weak, even after my consciousness came here. The link was only severed some time ago. There's no doubt that something happened to Origin, which also means that something happened to Lloyd or Sheena, or both. At the very least, Sheena wouldn't be able to summon the Elemental Summon Spirits, and the higher tier Summon Spirits will become weaker."

Emil frowned. "So we need even more time and mana to recover now?"

Ratatosk sighed tiredly. "That's why it's six months and not the four months I told you before for us to fully recover our lost mana."

The more timid personality was about to respond when a black void suddenly appeared within the confines of their white mindscape and he stared at it. There was a smirk on Ratatosk's lips as he also stared at the dark void. The Centurion of Darkness was formed from the dark void several seconds later.

"Lord Emil, Lord Ratatosk." Tenebrae bowed his head at his two masters.

Emil blinked at one of his longest companions. "Tenebrae? How?"

The black leopard looked at Emil. "We Centurions always have the power to enter the mind of our master, we just didn't see the need to do so until now." He then turned to Ratatosk. "I apologize for the delay, my Lord. Right now, I am your only servant that remained in the physical plane and I needed to gather as much mana of darkness as possible to help with your recovery."

Ratatosk nodded. "So I gather we are currently in the Temple of Darkness?"

"No. We are in Palmacosta. There are quite a lot of residue dark mana left by the second Summon Spirit of Darkness when it attacked the city."

Ratatosk growled. "So it really is Karas! I knew there was something fishy when a human boy was able to get pass the seal I placed in Ginnungagap and caught us off guard."

Contrary to his counterpart's scowl, worry etched on Emil's face. "How is Richter? Is he alright? And did that black bird attack Palmacosta again?"

"I have no information on the half elf, but I can tell you that Palmacosta is safe now. Sheena, Genis and Presea arrived not long after you collapsed. Sheena has left the same day but the other two have remained to protect us if something else are to occur."

Emil lit up at Tenebrae's words. "Genis and Presea are here?"

Before Tenebrae could reply Emil, Ratatosk growled. "Enough! We have more urgent matter at hands, the chit chat can come later."

Both Emil and Tenebrae flinched and had an apologetic look on their face. "I am sorry for getting carried away, my Lord."

The black leopard closed his eyes after his apology and soon after a layer of black mist enveloped his body. The layer became thicker and thicker as the body of the Centurion began to lose it's solidity and became more and more transparent. After Tenebrae fully disappeared leaving behind a considerable amount of dark mist at the spot he just occupied, the mist dispersed and swirled around both Emil and Ratatosk.

"Wh- what's happening?"

"The alternative method I told you about is for the Centurions to gather the mana of their nature from their surroundings and direct it back to me." The swirling black mist disappeared a while later and Ratatosk frowned. "Dammit, Tenebrae didn't know about Origin and didn't gather enough mana." He sighed tiredly. "Then again he alone wouldn't be able to gather enough mana for the both of us."

Emil also frowned. "Where's Tenebrae now? Couldn't we just ask him to gather more mana for us?"

The red-eyed Spirit shook his head. "He is in core form now. Though I could hatch him again with the residue mana of darkness in Palmacosta if what he said is true, I couldn't do that when I don't have access to the physical world."

Emil deflated at the reply. "So how long do we have to wait now?"

Ratatosk took a moment to assess his current mana level and estimated the time required for full recovery. "Two months."

"But we don't have the luxury to wait! Isn't there anything else we can do?"

Ratatosk shrugged. "Maybe if another Summon Spirit passed by and give us their elemental mana, but even then, I still need time to tune the mana."

"Tune... the mana?"

"Why do you think we need to specifically hatch the Centurions or wait for them to pass their mana to me to strengthen my power?"

"Because several people gathering mana at the same time is faster than just one?" Emil answered uncertainly.

"Then why didn't Tenebrae just ask Sheena to call out her Summon Spirits to give me mana to wake me up? Why do you think we still needed to travel all over the world to hatch the Centurions before, not taking into account the mess up climate and weird happenings? Don't you think Summon Spirits have a larger reserve of mana than Centurions?"

"Umm..." Emil tried to come up with an answer, but couldn't think of anything.

"One of the factors that strengthens the power of a Summon Spirit is when they are surrounded by the element they represent. I- we are the Summon Spirit of the Giant Kharlan Tree, the World Tree that withered a long time ago. The new World Tree isn't under my influence and vice versa and so I couldn't just draw the mana created by the new world tree and make it my own. One of the features of the Centurions is to tune the mana generated by the new world tree to mana that is tuned to us. I can also do that, but it will be much slower as I don't have access to the physical world now. Not to mention that it will be much faster with the help of the Centurions." Ratatosk explained patiently, as this wasn't general knowledge.

"Umm... is that the reason why I don't feel as powerful as I first thought I would be when I learned that I am a Summon Spirit?" It was true that apart from the confusion and fear he felt when he learned that he was a Summon Spirit, a part of him had this gleeful feeling that he was one of the most powerful beings of the world and could do many things a normal human couldn't do... and was relieved and slightly disappointed when he found that he wasn't that much different from a normal human being.

"Yes."

Silence fell between the two halves of the same Summon Spirit after that. There wasn't anything they could do except wait. Ratatosk's mind was occupied with the possible happenings in the outside world and cursed himself for not letting Tenebrae tell them more about the things that were happening in the physical realm, thinking that the mana his most loyal Centurion gathered was enough to at least let him wake up. He was so absorbed with thinking up different scenarios that might have happened to Aselia and Niflheim that he didn't notice the thoughtful look on Emil, nor would he pay much attention to his alter ego even if he saw it.

"Say," Emil paused and wait for Ratatosk to look at him before continuing, "our body went into a coma because it doesn't have enough mana and can't take the pressure of our two minds coexisting in it, right?"

Ratatosk nodded impatiently, not seeing the point of the other occupant of their shared mind repeating one of the first things he said when they were trapped here.

"Then what about before? I mean, we were also coexisting in this body before... is it because the mana level in our body is even lower than before?"

"Partly. When we were divided into core and physical form, even Verius didn't forsee something like this happening and your body was restructured to one that's similar to a normal human and could hold only one consciousness and the minimal mana to survive."

"Bu- but what about when I- I die? I don't see the Core going into a coma or anything similar..."

"Of course something like that won't happen to the Core. Do you see an inanimate object fainting?" Ratatosk rolled his eyes at the ridiculous suggestion. "When you die, your remaining mana will flow back to me and add to my mana reserve."

"What about my consciousness? I know I am talking about what will happen when I die... but I am still a part of you... so..."

"Your consciousness will remain, there will be enough mana to contain both your and my consciousness."

"I see..." Emil trailed off and Ratatosk thought the conversation had ended when Emil suddenly blurted out something that startled him. "What if I die now?"

Ratatosk narrowed his eyes at Emil's question, no, not a question, but a statement, a suggestion. "Drop that silly thought of yours."

Emil looked determinedly at Ratatosk. "I don't think it's silly. If my death could hasten our recovery which might be the key to avert the coming crisis, if it hasn't already come yet, it would be anything but silly."

"My recovery, not our, you do realize that we don't have enough mana to maintain your consciousness if we are to go with your plan, right?" The glare the Spirit sent to the other him intensified as he stated the cruel truth, hoping to intimidate him into second thinking his suggestion, no, decision. "You might not be able to return, even if I am to recover all of the lost mana in the future."

However, Emil didn't cower under the intense glare, nor did his determination waver, if anything, Ratatosk's words confirmed that his plan would work, and that was enough for him. "I already did it once, I mean this whole sacrificing thing, I was just lucky there was an alternative in the end. You also said I _might_ not be able to return, so I _might_ not just disappear either." Emil smiled warmly at Ratatosk. "Although we have different personalities, we are still one and the same. I trust you. I know that if it's within your power, you will find a way to revive me. Even if I might not be as lucky this time, that's enough for me."

* * *

There were two audible gasps as Ratatosk finished recounting the conversation between him and his counterpart. Genis started shaking his head as if in denial. "Wha- what are you talking about? A consciousness that was maintained by mana? I- I have never heard of something like that. And what's this with Origin? What happened to Lloyd and Sheena?"

"No matter how human Emil looked, he is still a Summon Spirit, or part Summon Spirit. His whole existence, both physical and psychological, is purely based on mana. As for your human friends, I don't know the detail either."

Presea put a reassuring hand on Genis' shoulder and squeezed it lightly. "It will be alright Genis, you know how Lloyd and Sheena are, I am sure they can handle whatever is thrown at them."

Genis nodded and met the gaze of the red-eyed part human part Summon Spirit, trying his best to push his worry for Lloyd and Sheena to the back of his mind to focus on the matter at hand. "Are you saying that you absorbed Emil's consciousness? Shouldn't it mean that the two of you merged instead of him just disappearing? And if Emil truly disappeared, it won't matter if we don't tell Marta now, she will know eventually."

"No. I didn't absorb him nor did we merge. His mind is not _composed_ of mana, but was _held together_ by mana. As for not telling Marta... that is Emil's wish." He held up a hand and stopped the others from protesting. "We know it is impossible to keep it from Marta forever, but it won't be forever. He- we just don't want Marta to worry over nothing, so I told her Emil's just resting inside our mind in my stead."

"What do you mean?" Presea asked.

"Emil's mind is broken, but it's not lost yet. We might be able to put it back together if we have the means."

"Mana!" Genis exclaimed. "If the thing that's missing is mana, all we need to do is give you more mana so Emil's mind can get back together!"

"Yes and no. It's true that mana hold his mind together, but we can't just use random mana."

Genis furrowed his brows at the term that he had never heard before. "Random mana?"

Tenebrae answered the young half elf's queries for his Lord. "What Lord Ratatosk is saying is that he couldn't just gather mana from his surroundings like he did just now to wake me to revive Lord Emil."

"You mean the mana tuning he," Presea pointed at Ratatosk, "mentioned before?"

The Centurion nodded. "If we carelessly use mana that Lord Emil's mind isn't tuned to, we run the risk of not being able to properly assemble all the pieces of his mind back together. If that happens, the best is him losing a memory or two and still retains his personality, but in the worst scenario, he might not remember anything at all and instead of Lord Emil, a new personality will surface."

Ratatosk nodded. "I won't bother you with more details than that. To help Emil, we need to awaken the Centurions that went back to core form for me to gather the required mana. After that, I will sort out the mana that Emil's mind is tuned to. I will also need Verius' help to separate the scattered pieces of Emil's mind from my consciousness and Origin's help to link them together with the tuned mana."

The young lovers felt relieved at Ratatosk's words, but Presea found something weird with the explanation. "But you just said something happened to Origin." She pointed out. "And you also mentioned that Emil's mind is not lost _yet, _does that mean there's a time limit?"

"That's why we are telling Marta that Emil's just sleeping in our mind for the time being."

* * *

_~ 12 days ago ~_

Howls of dying monsters resounded in the fog-filled plain. There were at least two dozen dead bodies of monsters lying on the ground already, but the number of monsters still standing was still quite large. A lone man stood before all the monsters with his weapon clutched tightly in his hand, blood of different colors flowed down over the surface of it, some even dripped onto his hand that was holding the handle of the weapon. However, the man, Yuan Ka-Fai, guardian of the World Tree, ignored the disgusting feeling of monster blood on his hand and narrowed his eyes at the remaining monsters before him, as if daring them to come closer and join their brethren in death.

Without any warning, three monsters suddenly jumped at the man at the same time. Yuan's lips became a tight line as he shifted his body slightly and swung his heavy weapon, a swallow, around with ease and neatly slashed one of the monsters into two. He side stepped as another one, a wolf-like beast, dived at him with its jaw wide opened. He kicked hard at the beast in its belly and launched it into the air with the force of his kick.

He jumped into the air after the beast just as the last of the three monsters, one that resembled a bear, only much larger and with fur of a very weird color, slammed its claw onto the ground he just stood. He brought his swallow down and stabbed the flying wolf in the back, effectively killing him. He then stepped onto the back of the still airborne wolf and used it as a stepping stone to jump even higher into the air, to where a bird type monster was flying.

The blue haired half-elf-turned-angel parried a few sharp feathers sent his way with the flat side of his double-edged blade and did a somersault when he was at the same height as the flying monster to add momentum to the downward kick he delivered to the head of it. It crashed down to the ground and into the bear-like monster that just attacked him and also some other monsters nearby, knocking them down. He unfurled his emerald mana wings to suspend himself tens of meters above the ground and looked over at the remaining monsters. He frowned at the large amount of monsters and started spinning his massive weapon.

Lightning cracked around his weapon as the spinning became faster, as if he was charging his weapon with lightning. A large glyph that shone with purple light appeared underneath his feet. After several seconds, he held the lightning charged weapon above his head.

"Spearing Thunder!" He threw the swallow towards somewhere in the middle of the crowd of monsters like a spear. Lightning danced around the soaring weapon and moments later a lightning clone of the swallow appeared next to it, then it multiplied again, and again, and again... till nearly the whole sky was covered by the lightning clones of the double-edged blade. The swallow and its clones rained down on the monsters and nearly all of them were impaled by at least one weapon. Lightning surged through their bodies and soon after all the monsters that were struck were fried alive and dropped to the ground, dead.

Yuan slowly lowered himself back to the ground while surveying the damage caused by the attack. Once he took note of the remaining monsters that were still alive, having luckily evaded the lightning based attack, he broke off into a a full-speed flight and sprinted towards one of them.

He held out his right hand and had the palm of it facing the direction where his weapon landed. Lightning once again cracked around both his hand and the swallow. The swallow flew across the field to where Yuan was and the man caught it effortlessly. The moment he firmly gripped the handle of his weapon he turned a full circle all the while spinning the swallow. The two monsters that were the closet to him were hit by the attack and also dropped dead.

In less than five minutes Yuan had dispatched the all the remaining monsters. He once again frowned as he took in the corpses lying in the area. It was the fifth day since monsters that usually only kept to themselves in the nearby forest suddenly went berserk and ventured too close to the Word Tree for the guardian's liking. This was not normal, no, this was nowhere near normal at all. Not only should the monsters recognize the World Tree as something that's off limit due to Ratatosk's influence, but they also shouldn't be able to come this close to the World Tree due to the barrier he set up in the surroundings.

It didn't help that he couldn't get in contact with Martel, the Tree Spirit, around the same time the monsters started attacking. He had checked the status of the Tree and nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. He was worried, but there was nothing he could do except continue guarding the World Tree and wait for the Tree Spirit to reappear or for someone to show up before him and tell him what's wrong. Though he had a vague guess something must have happened to Lloyd or Ratatosk or both.

If something happened to Lloyd, it might explain Martel's sudden disappearance and if something happened to Ratatosk, it might explain the sudden agitated monsters and their unnatural behavior. However, he couldn't come up with a reason for his barrier not working. It was enough to repel people, even the powerful ones, from entering the place, so why not monsters? He had tested it before and knew that it also worked perfectly fine against monsters.

He had just renewed it several days before all this chaos started, so the problem shouldn't lie within the barrier itself. Was it the monster then? Did they suddenly become more powerful? However, Yuan had ruled out that possibility as soon as he came up with that thought as he could still take out the monsters with as much ease as before.

It remained a mystery to Yuan and he could only continue to fend off the waves of monsters. It had become sort of a routine to the guardian. Everyday he would spend time to deal with the first wave of monsters, then a slight break, then a second wave, then another break, then a third... he was lucky that he was an angel that could go on for a long time without feeling too tired. In the meantime, he could only hope that Martel, or just _someone, anyone_, could show up and let him get a clearer picture of the current situation.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

First thing first, thanks again for the wonderful reviews! Hope you also like this chapter^^

Hopefully the explanation isn't too complicated this time. I have been re-reading and re-editing it so many times that it didn't look complicated to me anymore by the time I uploaded this chapter... but I am known to complicate even the simplest thing, at least that's what I was told... and there's still more explanation coming in the next chapter about Lloyd and Mithos...

A side note: Yuan has too few attacks in the game so I decided to create some for him. The one he used in this chapter, Spearing Thunder, is one of his Mystic Artes (yes, I created two, not just one Mystic Artes for him, the Seraphs of Cruxis are just so badass that I feel it's only right for them to have more than one Mystic Arte). The second one will be revealed in the future if and when he gets into another fight that required him using his other Mystic Arte.

_Uploaded on 17 May 2013._


	12. The Shattered Soul

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Shattered Soul**

_~ 11 days ago ~_

Shortly after Mithos disappeared, Lloyd was brought back to reality when pain exploded in his chest. He opened his eyes and saw his tormentor, a beast type demon that looked like a mix of a cow and a horse with lizard tail, lashing at him with a whip. He knew it was supposed to be very painful, if the spikes outlining the whip wasn't enough indication, but thanks to his angelic ability, the pain was dulled to something like Genis accidentally hitting him with his kendama when they were still kids.

He started to recall the memory of what just happened. He remembered the horrible dream, the dream that felt so real that he could still feel his father's blood on his hands and he had to remind himself that his father was safe in Derris Kharlan. His mind started drifting further back and recalled inhaling some gas before he fainted and that horrible dream started. If his memory served, the gas he inhaled looked vaguely similar to the gas that came out of Colette's mouth... well, at least the color was the same.

The beating ceased sometime later and he was hurled back to his cell. Once he was alone, he immediately started calling out to Mithos but the only answer he got was silence. Thinking that the spirit was only too tired and went to rest, he decided to catch some rest himself.

He woke up the next day – or was it the same day? It was impossible to tell the time here – feeling a bit refreshed from the thankfully dreamless sleep. He called for Mithos again and this time, although silence wasn't the answer he got in return, the voice that answered him wasn't Mithos, but Verius.

_Lloyd, glad to see you recovering so fast from yesterday. _The Summon Spirit of Heart said.

Lloyd looked confused at Verius' words. _You mean the beating? I thought you know I couldn't feel much pain._

_No. I mean the dream._

Lloyd fell silent as he recalled that terrible nightmare. _So it's true that they did something to me..._

He looked down at his hands and could still feel and see his father's blood on it. He shook his head to clear the mental image of Genis lying on a pool of blood and Kratos looking at him with that heart wrenching smile before finally closing his eyes... but it just felt so real. He scooped up his legs and crossed his arms over it while resting his forehead on his knees. He knew it wasn't real, a part of his mind told him it wasn't real, but he just couldn't shake off the feeling of something very wrong with him and he started trembling.

_Please, Verius, I know it wasn't real... but please tell me that Genis didn't die and... and da- dad's still alive and in Derris Kharlan right now..._

Verius didn't say anything as he observed the state of mind of the twin swordsman. _Last time I checked from your and Colette's memories, Genis and Presea have become lovers and Kratos was in Derris Kharlan hoping to guide the remaining angels to a place where they could finally call home._

Lloyd closed his eyes and tried to recall the last time he had seen his half elven friend and his father. _Thanks, I guess I need it... but I still don't understand, I- I really had the urge to do all that, and... no... Verius, tell me what's happening to me..._

_Lloyd, you need to stay firm. The dark urges weren't coming from you. They were from the demon that entered you shortly before the dream started. _Verius reassured him.

Feeling a little bit better, Lloyd decided to put away his more unnerving thoughts to focus on trying to understand what's going on. _Why the hell do they want to do something like that?_

_Remember when you asked Mithos what the demons want from you? It seems the demons seek to control you for your right to wield the Eternal Sword._ Verius explained.

_So I am right!_ Lloyd was feeling quite proud at guessing the demons' intention correctly... but should he really feel proud for something like this?

Verius chuckled, or Lloyd thought he was chuckling, at Lloyd's conflicting emotions. _You really are an amusing human. _

Lloyd looked unsure at Verius' words. _Am I supposed to feel glad I managed to amuse a Summon Spirit or feel insulted? _Verius just chuckled more at Lloyd's response.

Lloyd shook his head at Verius' antics, feeling slightly annoyed. It was at time like this that Lloyd found the shadow of Corrine in the Summon Spirit of Heart. _So Verius, you are saying that the demon entered my mind so they can control it? _

_No. They can't control you like they did to Mithos because of Martel's protection. What the demons really want though, is to... shatter, for lack of a better word, your mind so you could become a mindless puppet at their disposal._

Lloyd looked disturbed as a scene of him replacing Colette and became a soulless angel in her stead flashed through his mind. _What!? And I... I fell for it... _

_Lloy-_

_Mithos is right, I really am a useless human... what would dad think if he knew I fell for something like that... _Lloyd was starting to get depressed again at the thought of giving in to the dark urges the demon fed him.

Although he couldn't see it, Lloyd felt Verius shook his head. _No, Lloyd. The demon that entered your mind excelled in exploiting one's weakness and turning their own mind towards them. There was nothing else you can do._

But Lloyd wasn't convinced in the slightest. _I willingly tortured someone to death... okay, so he wasn't dead in my dream yet... but I still tortured him... I even called him inferior being..._

_I think you and I both agree that your family and friends are your weaknesses. It is similar to how Mithos became the fallen hero because Martel died and how Kratos willingly went back to Derris Kharlan to be Mithos' mindless puppet because he thought both you and Anna died. You weren't thinking straight from the moment you saw the illusionary Genis died._

_But I still killed da- the illusionary dad! _Lloyd didn't know why, but he wanted someone to scold him or punish him for what he did, and somewhere deep in his mind he hoped Kratos could be here chiding him with that gentle yet unforgiving tone of his or just glaring him to death for the things he did in that nightmare, even though they weren't real.

_The happenings during your first visit to the Tower of Salvation, especially when Kratos openly betrayed you and your friends, was something you had and still have a great trouble to overcome. _Lloyd looked like he wanted to protest when Verius continued and stopped him.

_I know the depths of your heart. You may have told yourself time and again that Kratos was only doing what was best at the moment to keep you and your friends from harm's way and you may have already forgiven him for that, but a small part of you still loath your father for choosing the indirect way to help you. The demon knew that and he made use of that tiny rebellious thought hidden deep in your mind to turn yourself against what you believe. _The Summon Spirit of Heart patiently explained.

Lloyd was going to accept what Verius said, albeit still a bit reluctantly, when he thought of something else. _But what about Mithos? He... he also had a demon invade his mind, but he didn't break... _

_Mithos had over four thousand years of memories for the demon to sort through before the demon could plan on something to work against him, whereas you only had thirty one years of memories. _Verius explained.

_But I thought the demons already know Mithos' weakness. _Lloyd said as he remembered Mithos telling him that the demons tried bargaining with him with Martel's revival when they first revived him.

_I don't know if we should be glad or not for Mithos' reason about that... he had been creating his own image of his sister for so long that nothing could really sway him. Do you remember when Martel told him that he was wrong and begged him to stop through Colette's body?_

Lloyd nodded as he recalled the happiness he could feel radiating from Mithos as Colette opened her eyes and revealed the green eyes of Martel and how that happiness vanished as he screamed out that the woman before her wasn't the real Martel just because she told Mithos what he did was wrong.

_If even the real Martel could only barely sway him, why do you think an illusion of her created by the demons could do the job? _Verius asked.

Lloyd remembered Mithos telling him how Martel would kill him if he ever worked with the demons. _Right... I guess we should be glad that Mithos did interpret some of Martel's wishes correctly..._

_Not to mention Mithos and his companions did encounter some demons back during the Kharlan War and something... unpleasant happened between Martel and the demon. _

Lloyd felt the Summon Spirit made a face at that unpleasant thing that happened between the gentle half elven maiden and the demon and felt curious towards it. _What happened?_

_It wasn't anything too serious, but I don't think it's in my place to tell you._

Now that just made Lloyd even more curious, but he didn't think Verius would just give in, not to mention he didn't even want to think what Mithos would do if he bugged Verius to tell him things he did not want others to know of. _How do you know about it anyway? If Mithos doesn't want to let others know about it, why did he tell you?_

_He didn't. I was holding his soul for the past few days and... had access to his memories._

… _you mean you just peeped at his memories? _Lloyd looked disturbed at the thought of Verius, a Summon Spirit, looking at another's private thoughts like a peeping tom and was suddenly horrified when he recalled Verius did tell him that his best friend and dad were okay from _his _and_ Colette's _memories_._

_Yes and no. I am the Summon Spirit of Heart and when I am near someone, I can tell what their heart's desire is, and when I enter someone, I gain all the knowledge that person has. It is like how Colette was given Martel's memories and vice versa when Martel's soul was within her._

_But Colette only has a part of her memories... _Lloyd trailed off as he remembered Colette telling him about the things she learned from Martel and if his wife told him that's all she knew, he would take her word for it.

_No, Lloyd. I am not saying that Colette lied to you. There's a difference between a mortal being and a Summon Spirit. To mortals, time is a major factor and seeing as how Martel was only in Colette for a while, Colette only saw Martel's strongest memories, or else her brain would overload from all the information rushing into her in just a split second. Whereas to us Summon Spirits, time doesn't affect us and we would never be at the risk of information overloading, that's why the instant I am within another's soul, I immediately gain all the memories of them._

_Ummm... okay... _Lloyd was having an difficulty following Verius' words and decided he didn't have to understand the full detail of how it worked. _So basically you are saying that you look at the memories even though you don't want to?_

Verius chuckled. _Yes, that would be the simplified version._

_So now you know me from the moment I was born... _Lloyd trailed off, not knowing what to think now that the very being he was talking to knew him from inside out. _Can Mithos see it too? Or can I see his memories too?_

_No. I guess you could say that it's because I'm here to interfere, neither of you will be able to read the other's memories._

Lloyd sighed in relief, glad to know that at least he still had some privacy from the half elf. _Okay... so how long was I in that... dream?_

_Four days. _

Lloyd's eyes bulged at the answer. _What!? But I feel like only two hours or so passed..._

_The mind works differently, it's normal for you not to feel the actual time flow when trapped inside._ _The actual nightmare only spanned twelve hours, the demons had been sorting through your memories before that._

_Right... what about the beating? I mean, what's the point of it if they are just going to... attack me mentally? _Lloyd remembered the demon whipping him and looked down to see his now tattered shirt.

_It's easier for them to invade your mind if you were physically in pain or exhausted. It didn't matter that you only barely felt it. Your body still bore the beating and was tired from it._ Verius explained.

_Okay... _Lloyd furrowed his brow as he thought of something. _Is that also why Mithos didn't easily fall into their trap? I mean, he's just a spirit now and doesn't have a physical body and all._

_Yes. That is also part of the reason._

_Right. _Lloyd was feeling better now that he knew he wasn't really that worse than the blond angel at fending off mind invading demons. S_o where's Mithos? I thought you can't leave his mind? _Lloyd asked as he remembered what Mithos said about him and Verius coexisting.

_Mithos is... indisposed at the moment._

Lloyd blinked. _What do you mean indisposed?_

_You were too far gone to think rationally unless I am to enter your mind and momentarily shield you from the onslaught of unpleasant mental images and get rid of the demon. But as you know, I wasn't supposed to leave Mithos an-_

_But we were still in my mind. I remember Mithos saying that it is okay for you guys not to coexist when he is in another person's body. _Lloyd said agitatedly as he started to feel dread at Verius' word.

_Rest assured, Lloyd, I am not saying that Mithos is gone._ Lloyd let out the breath he didn't know he had been holding at Verius' reassurance. _He was still weak from the demon's possession and when I left him, the power holding his soul together disappeared and his soul shattered. I can still help him recover by piecing his soul together again, don't worry. _The fox-like Summon Spirit quickly added the last sentence as he saw the look on the Eternal Swordsman when he said the word 'shattered'.

_The pieces of his soul are now residing in your body. However, since he also extracted the remains of the dead demon from within your mind, it complicated things a bit and I will need at least three days to help him fully recover._

_Okay... _Lloyd felt bad about what happened to Mithos because of him, but he knew there's no use dwelling on it now.

He then started to feel dread as he realized a huge problem. _Err... Verius, what if the demons attempt to... crush my mind again before Mithos recovered? I... I don't think I can fight them off on my own..._ He trailed off, knowing it's the truth but still feeling ashamed at admitting defeat.

_On the contrary, since I don't need to hold onto Mithos' soul right now, I can easily shield you from any mental assault. The only off side is that it will lengthen the time I require to piece Mithos' soul back._

_But what about after Mithos is okay? _Lloyd asked as he furrowed his brow, from his understanding of Verius' words just now, it was as if he was saying it's better to not help Mithos...

_Mithos can take my place to shield you from the mental assault after that. He simply wasn't prepared for the previous one and so couldn't shield you in time. _Verius explained.

_That's good. _Then Lloyd remembered something Mithos said before they were dragged out of the cell. _By the way Verius, I recalled Mithos saying something about an escape plan, did he tell you what the plan is? _

_He doesn't need to tell me for I share the same mind as him and has access to even the deepest depth of his soul. I knew of his plan even before he started planning it out himself._ Verius said patiently as he literally repeated what he said just a few minutes ago.

_Oh yeah, I kinda forgot that... _Lloyd sheepishly rubbed the back of his head with his hand. _Can you tell me what the plan is so I can start working on it while waiting for you to put Mithos back together?_ It sounded weird when Lloyd said it... to put someone back together... that just sounded so wrong...

* * *

_~ 10 days ago ~_

Raine carefully removed the arm sling of her patient. The man before her was one of the lucky ones with only minor injuries due to people pushing around when they tried and failed to evacuate in an organized way. The man thanked her after the sling was removed and he was free to go, glad that he was finally cleared to go back to his hometown.

Raine let out a large breath and relaxed her tensed muscle, the man just now was her last patient for the day. She's in Medical Center One, the largest hospital in Altamira situated in the center of the city. Although there were still many people: patients, doctors and nurses, either waiting to be treated or running around to treat the patients, it was much less crowded compared to a several days ago.

"Raine!"

The healer turned to the source of the voice and saw the brother she hadn't seen over three months and went to meet him. "Genis! Why are you here? I thought you were in Palmacosta?"

"Huh? How do you know about that?" Asked the confused half elf.

"I met Sheena and we came here together. Colette and the others are also here." Raine explained.

Genis' expression lit up at Raine's words. "So both Sheena and Lloyd are okay? Great! And I was this worried when Ratatosk told us that something's wrong with Origin."

The moment the words left his mouth, he saw Raine's expression changed. "Sis?" Though Raine was always level headed and could be very calm even in the face of a brewing storm, Genis was her brother and had spent his who life next to her and knew where to look. The expression Raine was currently donning was screaming to him that everything, not just something, was wrong.

* * *

Genis looked at the figure lying on the bed. If he didn't know better, he would have thought Colette was just sleeping and not recovering from mana exhaustion from the peaceful look on her face. Genis unconsciously clenched his fists tightly at his sides. Raine told him that she had been unconscious for almost five days. Five days! And within those five days, he had done nothing but worrying about Lloyd, Sheena and Emil! He hadn't even remotely thought about the possibility of Colette getting into trouble, thinking for sure that Lloyd would protect her. And worse, even Lloyd was missing! He had been their best friend, but he didn't even know what happened to them until Raine informed him. And he couldn't even help solve Emil's problem!

"Stop that Genis. You are hurting yourself."

Genis snapped into attention at that. Not because of the words, but because of the voice. He looked up and saw Colette's dull blue – not clear blue – eyes staring at his clenched fists. He had been clenching his fists so tight that the knuckles had turned white. He relaxed his hands at Colette's worried feature, not wanting to add any more unnecessary burden to his still recovering friend.

"Colette." He paused, not sure what to say to the just awakened woman. There were so many things running through his mind that he wanted to say to her, but none seemed appropriate. In the end, after nearly five minutes of silent, he settled with the first one that came to his mind. " Are you feeling alright?" The question was so lame that Genis wanted to hit himself after the words left his mouth.

"Yes. I am fine. Thank you." It's wrong. The words were in itself very Colette-like, but it were the wrong words for this situation. It was almost like an automatic response from her, for she would never give anyone any reason to worry over her. Genis knew that and hit himself again for asking the insensitive – to Genis, asking Colette how she was feeling was the most insensitive question one could ask her – question.

"Stop. Colette. Please, just stop it." Colette closed her eyes at the half elf's words. She understood what Genis was going to say, but she didn't want to break down in front of her friend.

"Stop sacrificing yourself!" She opened her eyes and stared at her friend. She was surprised at the outburst, for that wasn't what she thought Genis was going to say.

"Haven't we already drilled into your mind that noting good will come of you sacrificing your life! Didn't you also say the exact same words to others when they tried to do something similar!" Colette opened her mouth to respond to her friend but didn't manage to get a word out as Genis continued. "Do you want Lloyd to come back to find his wife gone? What about Kraden? Do you really want your son to grow up without a mother like Lloyd?"

Colette closed her mouth at the mention of her family and slowly shook her head to answer Genis' question, not trusting her voice. "Look, Colette, I know you are worried." Colette opened her mouth again only to be cut off by the half elf, again. "Don't you dare say anything like you aren't worried because Lloyd's going to be alright. I _know_ Lloyd is going to be alright, but even so, worrying is just a part of us showing our love for him, it's perfectly fine to worry over that idiot."

"Genis, I..." She trailed off, not knowing what to say to her friend.

"I am worried! I am worried about Lloyd! I am worried about you! Because we are friends! You know I am worried about Lloyd, Raine knows I am worried about him, Presea knows I am worried about him, because we are friends! Why would you think that you trying to act all strong and tough before the others would make them think otherwise? Everyone knows that you are worried about Lloyd! Because you are his wife! It's only natural for you to worry about him! If you don't want to add additional worries to others, stop holding it all in! It's because you tried to hold it all in that you made the irrational decision and did the thing Lloyd, me, and everybody in our group, hate the most! Don't you trust us?"

"Genis, I..." Colette began again, she looked at her shaking-with-anger friend and tried to come up with anything to say to him, but her mind came up blank except the automatic response she would normally say when someone's angry at her. "I am sorry. Genis. I am sorry."

Genis let out a shaky breath and tried to calm himself at the other's apology. He gave Colette the look he always gave her whenever she started apologizing, even when she hadn't done anything wrong. "I am letting you off for abusing your apologizing trait, since you _are _the one at fault this time."

Though there were tears threatening to fall down from her eyes, Colette let out the first real smile since her husband went missing at Genis' words.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Not sure what to say except thanks for the reviews again! I will try to get the next chapter up sooner, but right now I am more motivated to write my TOA and TOS crossover fic...

_Uploaded on 1 June 2013._


	13. The Escape Plan

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Escape Plan**

Ratatosk stared at the door before him. He was standing outside the room Colette was put into after she fainted from mana exhaustion. Although he wasn't as close to the group as Emil, he still once journeyed and battled alongside them. And he knew that if it were Emil, he would have wanted to visit the two last Chosens of Regeneration and make sure that the two were fine on their way to recovery. He had tried to check on Zelos just now, but apparently the red haired Chosen was too busy flirting with the nurse to notice him, not that Ratatosk had done anything to get his attention apart from just standing in front of the door, like now, but in front of a different Chosen's room.

This time he didn't enter the room because he heard that Genis was already inside. He knew the half elf and the Chosen were best friends and thus decided to leave the two alone. However, he stopped himself from leaving when Genis started shouting. He wasn't some insensitive jerk that liked eavesdropping, but being a Summon Spirit, especially one that never had much socializing experience with the other species – the past twelve years with Richter didn't really count, as it was just one person he's constantly spending time with and Richter wasn't what one would say to be a people person anyway – he really thought something nasty was going to happen when the shouting started.

As he listened to the words, he knew he didn't have anything to worry, but he still couldn't help but just continued standing in front of the door hearing what the half elf had to say. Imagine the surprise he had when he heard the words Genis said about sacrificing.

_If only Genis or the others were in our mind before I agreed to that stupid suggestion of yours, Emil. _The Summon Spirit thought with a wishful smile. Even now, he couldn't think of any alternative method they could do to hasten their recovery, but he and Emil should trust their friends more. However, what's done was done and there's nothing he could do now, but he was glad that he at least told the others about his and Emil's dilemma.

After quite a lengthy discussion, the four of them – Ratatosk, Tenebrae, Genis and Presea – believed that the best course of action at the moment would be to first seek out Sheena and had her use the power of the Summon Spirits to give him enough elemental mana to awaken the Centurions. They had told Marta their plan, minus the part about Emil being more indisposed than she thought, and the nurse had reluctantly told them that she couldn't come with them due to her duties in Palmacosta and that she had to look after Emily.

He supposed it's a good thing for the other him to be able to give birth to a human, though he himself had shuddered at the thought of having to deal with a human child crying for her missing papa, the presence of Emil's daughter made it possible for them to hide Emil's true condition from Marta for a longer time. He could only hope that they could find a way to restore Emil before Marta became too suspicious and before the time came when Emil's mind became too scattered that they won't be able to put them back together at all.

"You know, although Lloyd's an idiot and now can't talk to Origin if what Raine said is true, I am sure he can figure something out on his own."

Ratatosk decided that he had heard enough and there's no point to eavesdrop anymore now that he knew nothing bad was going to happen. He turned around and started to leave-

"Yes. I'm sure they will be fine."

- and paused his steps at Colette's words.

"They? You mean someone else is with Lloyd? Who?"

"Mithos and Verius." Ratatosk narrowed his eyes at the name. _No. Surely it's just the same name, Mithos is quite a common name. Yes, that must be the case. But why wou-_

"Mi- Mithos?" The Summon Spirit's thought was interrupted by the sudden outburst of Genis. "As in," he could literally hear the half elf swallowing before finishing his question, "Mithos Yggdrasill?"

Red covered his vision at the mention of _his _name, the name of the half elf that betrayed him and indirectly put him into a four thousand year long slumber. The one that, according to Verius, had also sealed Origin and had done much damage to the world until he was killed by none other than Lloyd Irving Aurion.

"Silly Genis, how many Mithos do we kn-" Colette didn't get to finish her sentence as both she and Genis were startled by a loud bang coming from the door. The two turned their heads towards the door and saw Ratatosk standing in the doorway, fists clenched tightly at his sides, just like Genis did several minutes ago, with red glowing eyes.

* * *

_~ 6 days ago ~_

Lloyd rubbed his face with his hand and looked down at his clothing. Though the room was so dark that a normal person wouldn't be able see anything he could still make out the poor state of his clothes. "Damn! If this goes on my whole shirt is gonna fall off!"

"Stop whining about your shirt. If you have the time to whine, then start practising." A translucent figure suddenly appeared before the man hovering above the floor as he chided the man.

"Sometimes I swear you are turning into my dad."

Mithos narrowed his eyes, he wasn't sure if he should take being compared to Kratos as a complement of insult. "Between the two of us you are the one who's turning out to be more and more like him." Mithos then glared at the twin swordsman. "Anyway, now's not the time for it, start practising."

Lloyd winced slightly at the sharp tone, but he still persisted in his 'whining'. "But I am tired right now, could I rest for a while first?"

"The one who should be tired is me. I am the one doing all the work for you, boy." That's true, while Lloyd was put into a sleep, Mithos was battling against the demon that they put into the Eternal Swordsman's mind. He had the support of the Summon Spirit of Heart, but it was much more tiring than what Lloyd had to endure. It didn't matter that the man was dreaming another very realistic nightmare, Mithos was the one that did _all_ the work.

"You don't have a physical body, so you shouldn't feel as tired as me, and it isn't like you need to rest anyway." Lloyd pointed out.

"You have the Angelus Sphere, the most advanced form a Cruxis Crystal can get, so you shouldn't feel that tired, and it isn't like you need to sleep anyway." Mithos rebutted.

"But they beat me up!" Lloyd protested.

Mithos' eyebrow twitched. "Like you said, all you had to do was endure the beating, which shouldn't be a problem if you followed my suggestion and turn off your sense of pain, while I have to go into a battle to protect your mind!"

"No. How many times do I have to tell you I wouldn't do that? I already couldn't feel temperature and don't want to shut down even my sense of pain, not when it's already dulled this much. I hate not knowing what's happening to my body, and Yuan told me even if I can't sleep I still have to rest."

"You are stubborn like your father, it isn't like I am asking you to permanently turn off your sense of pain. As for resting, Yuan may be correct about that, but do you really want to spend another day in this hell hole? I for one don't. If you want to rest so much, fine, I will escape on my own." The boy said and faded into nothingness, leaving Lloyd as the only occupant of the room.

The red clad man blinked twice at the sudden departure of the spirit before panic started washing over him. "Ermm... Mithos? I was just joking, no need to get all worked up... you know, I am just some immature child compared to you. I swear I will start practising if you could just show up, ok?"

Lloyd looked around the empty cell, expecting Mithos to pop up and started laughing at his panicked expression any moment, but no, he was still the only one in the cell. After something like five minutes - he couldn't really tell the time in this confined space - he let out a defeated sigh and lied down on the floor to take a nap, telling himself that everything's going to be alright and decided that if he were to panic, he could do it after he had had a good rest.

* * *

A minotaur walked along the long corridor in the one and only prison in Niflheim with slightly stiff movement. He paused several seconds later and, after making sure no one was in sight, started to do some light stretching. Another twenty seconds passed before he stopped and straightened himself. He looked to the front of him and tried to focus on a door near the end of the corridor. He blinked several times to get a clearer visage. He nodded to himself and started walking again.

It took him nearly a minute just to get to door he was looking at just now near the end of the corridor. He opened the door and in the next room he saw another three minotaurs that were, to his bewilderment, playing cards. One of the demons nodded to him and mumbled something unintelligent that would be translated to 'good work' in the human language before returning his focus to the game. He walked pass the other three prison guards to the door on the other side of the room and opened it.

He took in the familiar sky of Niflheim and left the last room that connected the prison to the outside. If any of the other guards noticed the slight pause he had after he opened the door, they were either putting it off as him being stuffed in the prison doing guard duty for too long or too into the game to say anything. He closed the door behind him and walked to the front gate. He tested the toughness of it by pulling and pushing the tall and wide gate before finally resolving to use the set of keys hanging from his belt to open it.

Once he got pass the gate, he looked to his left then to his right and smirked. _Fools. To assign mindless beasts like these such an important job as prison guard to guard intelligent beings._

_Are you sure this is wise? Shouldn't we inform Lloyd about this first? _A second voice asked within his mind.

_He is too single-minded to think we are leaving him. But once he realised I'm not showing up no matter how he called out for us, he will start practising like I told him to hoping that I will eventually stop whatever childish game he would think I'm playing and come out._

The possessed demon swore he heard a mental sigh from the Summon Spirit of Heart. _You are both so childish._

_Shut up! _Mithos thought irritatingly. _Besides, I also need to do some practising, we only have one chance and I don't want an idiot like him to blame me for our failure if I accidentally messed things up._

Nothing else was said after that as Mithos tried to get more used to the body of his new host and searched through the demon's memories for any sort of information that would help with their escape. He walked across the rocky terrain and not long later came to a crossroads. Without hesitating, he took the left road and after another ten minutes of walking, stopped before an entrance to a large cavern. From his reluctant stay in Niflheim before, he knew that this cavern would lead him to a small underground village-like settlement, and one of the exits on the other side of this settlement would lead to another long pathway that ultimately linked to Aselia through the now slightly opened door.

He had no doubt that whatever weak demons that resided in the settlements would already be replaced by the many foot soldiers that were waiting impatiently to get to the other side of the ever so slowly widening door and that the pathway linking the two words would be flooded with smaller lesser demons that could squeeze through the door. If they were to escape, they would need to find a way to get pass all the demons in the cavern without being noticed.

It's very challenging, but he loved challenges. In the last four thousand years of his life, he literally ruled over three worlds, including Derris Kharlan, without much opposition apart from the occasional bands of self-proclaimed heroes that accidentally stumbled upon the secret of the Church of Martel and wanted to do something about it, the rebellions the Desian encountered and, of course, the Renegade, but none of those ever came close to overthrowing him, not until Lloyd's group appeared, and he had almost forgotten the thrill of facing such an endearing challenge.

_Don't get carried off, we still have an army of demons to get pass._ Verius reminded in a tone a father would use to his reckless son.

Mithos rolled his eyes at the playful chiding of Verius. As he spent more time with the fox-like Summon Spirit, he realised that although not like Gnome, the super childish and annoying as hell Summon Spirit of Earth, Verius also retained a certain degree of annoyance and at times took pleasure in teasing others. He had been a bit weirded out by Verius when he first displayed such behaviours – not that he would admit it out loud, but he was sure the fox-like Summon Spirit knew of it the moment he thought about it anyway – as this was nowhere similar to the description of the Summon Spirit of Heart he had read when he was learning how to summon four thousand years ago.

He reasoned that that must be due to Verius being reborn as an artificial Summon Spirit and had gained a new personality spending time near the summoner from Mizuho and later Lloyd's group. Though he could be wrong and that was in fact how Verius had been behaving since he was created... it wasn't that hard to accept that fact, seeing as how Gnome's _real _personality was also very much different from, if not downright opposite to, the description written in books.

_Do you think it's possible to dig a tunnel from here to right in front of the door? _Although he already knew the answer to that question, Mithos still liked to entertain himself with the thought of not needing to go through their original plan to get back to Aselia.

_We are lucky that Atrament and Karas are and will likely still be in the palace when we escape if this demon's memory is accurate, but we still couldn't rule out the possibility of the presence of other demons that could sense their surroundings. _

_Right. _The possessed demon entered the cave and started walking along the wide tunnel that led to the demon settlement nearest to Ginnungagap. _Time to do some reconnaissance._

* * *

"You are back! I knew you were just joking and wouldn't really abandon me." Lloyd said cheerfully the moment he spotted Mithos appearing before him.

"Don't think so high of yourself," the spirit said irritatingly and paused as he resisted the urge to rebut the small voice in the back of his mind commenting how the two were too childish for their actual age, "I only remained here to help you because Kratos would have had my head if he knew I left his son to rot in a prison cell."

"... Mithos? Didn't anyone tell you that Kratos left with Derris Kharlan fourteen years ago?"

Mithos widened his eyes at the information and silence fell between the two. Many thoughts were running in his mind and he could see with his mind's eyes the apologetic look on Verius for not informing him of this sooner. After a while, the spirit regained his voice. "I just thought you didn't mention him that much because you two are in a fight or something like that... I have no idea... did... did he say something about atoning his sin? And what about Yuan, why didn't Yuan stop him? Why didn't YOU stop him?"

"Do you seriously think that I didn't try? That, as his son, I am okay with him leaving and _never_ coming back." Lloyd rebutted with slightly raised voice, him not trying harder to keep his father from leaving was always a sore spot for him.

"... yes... he's just stubborn like that, isn't he..." Mithos whispered and looked down, hands balling into tight fists at his sides and Lloyd could see his whole body trembling slightly. "It shouldn't be him... it should never be him... I'm the one that..." He didn't understand, didn't _want _to understand why Kratos was always this suicidal and always taking all the blame. He ignored the small voice in the back of his mind telling him that it's his fault for leading the his own teacher to believe that the world would be better off without him.

The two didn't say anything after that. After a while, Lloyd broke the silence with a very soft voice. "It's alright. I don't blame you for it. I mean, you did do wrong in the past, but you are regretting, so it's okay. Dad's the one that made the decision, there's nothing we could do once his mind is set."

Mithos slowly raised his head and looked at the brunette with sad and guilty eyes. However, the look disappeared so quickly that Lloyd thought he only imagined it. "I guess it's thanks again, Lloyd." _Though it doesn't mean I am not feeling guilty anymore. _Yes, he was feeling guilty, an emotion he didn't know he could still feel after all these years and blamed it on the demons, Verius and Lloyd to awaken such foreign yet once familiar feeling, along with other feelings he thought he was immune to, in him.

"That's what friends are for" Lloyd said with the biggest smile he could muster with his current condition.

Friends. A word he had once scoffed at. How ironic that now this was something like a lifeline to him to stop him from depressing over all the things he had done in the past. He mentally shook his head to rid the thoughts. _Now wasn't the time to wallow in self pity._

"So, have you been practising like I told you to?" Mithos had a feeling that he was actually talking to a small child. One that required the right amount of motivation to do whatever he was told. Not a thirty one year old man, and the son of Kratos to boot. _Must be from his mother._

Lloyd frowned. "I tried, but I just can't get the hang of it. It's soooo difficult, I don't understand how you can do something like that continuously for four thousand years."

Mithos rolled his eyes. "How stupid can you get? I already explained it to you at least five times!" He sighed. "Even Kratos and Yuan got it in their first few tries and I didn't have to go into as much detail as I have given you."

Although there was a light flush of red on his face at the 'stupid' comment, Lloyd mostly ignored any degrading comment Mithos threw his way. He was already getting used to it after spending the last few days with the spirit. "You mean dad can also do it? Why? I mean, I have never seen him do it." He asked curiously and pushed back the slight feeling of hurt and regret at not trying to get to know more about his only blood relative left before he went off to Origin knew where.

Mithos shrugged. "Dunno. I was only teaching Yuan as I needed him to do some undercover job and he couldn't do it looking like that. I guess Kratos was just feeling bored at the time and wanted to see if he could also master it." He furrowed his brows as he tried to recall the occasion. "Though I don't remember him ever using it again after that."

"Riiiiggght." Lloyd drawled and tried to imagine the other two Seraphs looking like some old man with a hunched back that required walking stic-

"N- no!" Mithos exclaimed as he tried and failed to conceal his laughter at the image the Eternal Swordsman was conjuring up in his mind. "Th- they weren't going for an ol- older appearance." He hiccoughed a few times before finally getting his emotions in check and inhaled and exhaled deeply a few more times until he was sure he wasn't going to explode anytime soon. "They were going for their child versions."

"Huh?" Lloyd blinked. "You can also reverse the process?"

Mithos let out a huge shaky breath that was still laced with some residue laughter before answering Lloyd's very 'intelligent' question. "If we can't, then how do you explain me being able to switch back to my teenage form? Or were you thinking of living the rest of your life as some old man that couldn't walk straight?"

"Umm... well... right, point taken." Lloyd scratched the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly.

Yes, their escape plan involved Lloyd having to utilise the full potential of the Cruxis Crystal, or Angelus Sphere, he had to alter his physical age and appearance to that of a very old man. After that, Mithos and Verius would possess one of the demons guarding their cell and let the transformed Eternal Swordsman out. He, with the power of the Summon Spirit of Heart, would 'share' the demonic aura of the possessed demon with Lloyd to cover up his mana signature to make him look and feel like a demon.

Since Lloyd would look more 'demonic' with a much older appearance, they hoped that other demons wouldn't be able to tell that Lloyd was in fact a human and not just a random demon. They would then escape to the Ginnungagap and thus Aselia by posing as some of the foot soldiers that were sent to the surface to wreak havoc.

Mithos sighed and shook his head, amazed at how the mind of the current Eternal Swordsman worked. One moment he seemed to have the sharpest of mind and could point out things others would have overlooked, then the next he became the biggest idiot. "Now get back to work."

"Right... umm... about that..." Lloyd shifted uncomfortably, not knowing how to voice out his request.

"What now?" Mithos asked, annoyed at whatever excuse Lloyd was going to tell him just so he could practice later.

"Can you possess me?" Lloyd blurted out.

Mithos blinked. "Come again?"

"I mean, I think I would be able to get a better grip on this changing my age thing if you do it while you are in my body."

_He has a point, Mithos, Lloyd learns better through experiences and not theories. _Verius said.

Mithos sighed. "Okay, but you better not make up some other excuse to laze out of practising after that."

Lloyd nodded eagerly, happy at the other's cooperation. When Mithos look at him, the spirit felt something swelling in his chest, right where his heart would be if he still had a physical body. He wasn't sure what to feel for Lloyd to willingly let him possess his body. Sure he had done it several times already during their stay in Niflheim, but it was just different when the man _asked. _He knew Lloyd wouldn't have noticed it, but it was a show of deep trust and the Eternal Swordsman had once again unknowingly showed Mithos how strong a person he was and had him recall his own willingness to believe the others when he was just a kid and Martel was still alive.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Strawberry Eggs –** I have only played FF9 and FF10 before, so I'm not sure what a Catoblepas is... anyway, thanks for pointing out those two errors. Those two errors, especially the first one, was so grave that I edited it the moment I saw your review. I should have used a dictionary to search for the meaning of the word to better understand how it's used before using it... by the way, I'm a miss XD

I feel bad for updating this after so long when I'm updating my other fics quite frequently... don't worry, I haven't lost interest in this fic at all and will finish it one day even if it takes years for me to do so(don't hit me!). However, the bad news is that I will updating it once every two or three weeks from now on :P

_Uploaded on 22 June 2013._


	14. The Present

Disclaimer: I don't own Tales of Symphonia, Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk and Tales of Phantasia

* * *

**Chapter 13: The Present**

Lloyd walked along the long corridor of the one and only prison in Niflheim without really knowing what he was doing and where he was going, nor was he paying any attention to his surroundings. Like a robot on autopilot as flashes of the most recent nightmare, or should he say the crooked and false memories the demons implanted in him, kept on showing up in his mind.

It wasn't the first time nor was it the second time he had gone through this type of mental torture since his capture. Heck, it was the _fifth_ time he was dragged to what he now dubbed the 'torture room'. However, it didn't matter how many times he had been through it, nothing could prepare him for the 'creative' twist the demon did to his memories.

He shut his eyes tightly and tried to wipe out the images of the crazed look on Kraden as he killed Colette. But no matter what he did, it was simply too overwhelming for him to not think of it. His four year old son. His sweet four year old son smiling like a bloodthirsty serial killer as he slowly tortured his own mother to death.

He knew it was impossible for a four year old boy to know anything about killing, let alone torturing, especially since Iselia had been at peace without anything bloody happening for the past twelve years. He knew it was even more impossible for Colette to fall prey to such silly attacks, no matter how she had lowered her guard when spending time with Kraden because _no_ parents should need to be wary of their own child. Well, maybe Kratos, but he was constantly on guard so that didn't count.

He let out a shaky breath and stopped in front of the door to his cell. He should focus on other important stuff right now, like escaping. It had taken a long time, but he and Mithos were finally ready to carry out their plan. He was simply unlucky that the demons chose this day to give him another one of those horrible sessions and that it had to be such a horrifying nightmare.

The Minotaur that had been walking behind him opened the door and roughly pushed Lloyd into the dark and bare room. He stumbled to the hard floor at the sudden push and heard the door slammed shut behind him. There was the familiar click that told him the guard had locked the door and Lloyd wondered why Mithos didn't do anything. They had decided to escape today and possessing that demon just now and preventing him from locking the door should have been a good start. However, at the same time, he was also grateful for the inaction of the spirit as he really needed to take a small rest first.

"Let me rest for ten minutes, okay?"

Mithos appeared before Lloyd with a neutral expression, having heard the tremble in the question but at the same time understood that the other wouldn't want him to say anything about that. "Make it half an hour. You need to be on your best for the plan to work."

Lloyd's protested at the idea. He didn't want to spend too long doing nothing and have his mind wandering off to dangerous territory. However, it didn't take long for Mithos to win their argument as usual. Well, he wanted to argue for longer, but he was simply too tired to carry on the conversation. They bickered for a while before Lloyd decided to take a light nap. He was grateful for the bickering and knew it was Mithos' way to distract his mind. The last thought he had as he drifted into the semi-conscious state that was the closest to sleeping for an angel was that he hoped he could have a dreamless sleep.

Mithos got into a lying position in mid air before Lloyd and looked at the ceiling of the small room thoughtfully. He was thinking about having to face the people and the crimes he had committed in the past when he heard Lloyd whimpered in his semi-conscious state.

He turned to look at the pained expression on the Eternal Swordsman before closing his eyes and making a decision. _Verius, seal it._

_Are you sure it's wise? _Having been sharing the same mind, the fox like Summon Spirit didn't have to ask to know what 'it' was.

_Lloyd wouldn't be able to look at his son without thinking back to those disturbing images if you don't do it. And it would also put a huge risk factor in our escape if he is in this condition. _Mithos reasoned.

Verius fell silent as he thought about Mithos' suggestion. He knew Mithos understood that he had to stay in the Eternal Swordsman's mind if he were to seal up his memory. And if he did that, Mithos wouldn't be able to roam freely in the physical realm unless they had Origin or the Eternal Sword do something about it. He could still leave Mithos some of his energy, but even then the spirit would only be able to spend a minute at most in the physical realm before having to reside in another's body to 'recharge' the energy spent.

Finally, Verius decided to go along with Mithos' suggestion, but he still had to warn him about the risk in it. _If I am to seal it, I couldn't leave Lloyd's conscious anymore, or at least a majority of my power has to always stay with him for it to work. If something happens to me draining my power from within him, the seal will break and your plan will backfire. _

Mithos closed his eyes as he thought about the other's words. _At least seal it till we leave Niflheim. I understand that sealing a memory is a bad move and has many consequences, but at least let him have the peace of mind until he is surrounded by his family and friends again. We don't have the time to help him get over it now, we will just have to let them handle it. And I am sure his family and friends can do a better job than the two of us._

Verius nodded despite not being in the physical realm, knowing that the message would get across to the spirit anyway. He noticed how when Mithos referred to the others as Lloyd's friends, he had put it in a way such that it seemed he wasn't one of those friends but decided not to say anything about it now. If anything, Mithos was the one that needed someone to help him recover more than Lloyd.

No matter how real the implanted memories were to Lloyd, he could still tell himself that those were just lies and would be able to convince himself that they were indeed lies once he was surrounded by his family and friends again. However, all the crimes Mithos committed in the past were real. If he didn't have four thousand years' worth of experience under his belt, Verius was sure his mind would have broken into many tiny pieces when the demons tried to sway him over to their side.

It didn't matter that Mithos was the worst tyrant a world could have in the past, Verius could read his mind and heart's real desire like an open book and knew the extent of his regret over his past action. He wanted to help the disheartened spirit. He's a Summon Spirit and Summon Spirits weren't supposed to play favourite, but he had bonded with Mithos like Corrine, his past self, had with Sheena. He hoped that when Mithos get back to Aselia, there would be more people like Lloyd that would accept him back with open arms.

* * *

"Time's up."

Genis froze at the words as if they were his death sentence. He gingerly lifted his gaze and saw Ratatosk staring at him with annoyance and irritation. The others of his party – Raine, Presea, Colette and Richter – stopped and shifted their attention to the Lord of Monster who had announced those words out of the blue.

Ten days ago, when Genis, Presea and Ratatosk showed up in Altamira, they had learnt from the others the unfortunate news of Sheena being unable to summon the Elemental Summon Spirits except Luna and Shadow anymore and knew they had to hatch the Centurion Core the traditional way: going to their respective altar.

After some planning, it was decided that Regal would remain in Altamira while Zelos would go to Meltokio and the two of them would use their influence in the Royal Court to subtly ease the news of demons from Niflheim invading their world to the public and to request reinforcement to be stationed near the Otherworldly Gate so they could react faster to any invasions in the future. Sheena had already left several days before that and had informed them she's taking some of her people to Flanoir while sending some other to Altamira to help with the reconstruction and to stand guard in case the demons wanted a second round.

The other city they wanted to inform was Palmacosta since it was the city with the second largest military force after Meltokio, and only by a very tiny margin. Normally it would be better if Emil was the one to do it as he was a respected member and hold a high position in the military, but due to his current condition, they decided to send a letter and ask Marta to do the honor instead. After all, Marta was quite close to Clara, the wife of the new acting Governor-General, Neil.

That left the five of them to travel around the world going to the Elemental Summon Spirit's Temple and hatching the Centurion Cores. They had already been to the Temple of Lightning and successfully waken Tonitrus, the Centurion of Lightning, as that was the closest Centurion altar to Altamira.

Their plan was to go around the world in a clockwise direction starting from the Temple of Lightning, then the Temple of Ice, Fire, Wind, Water and finished with the Temple of Earth. As for Tenebrae, the Centurion of Darkness, and Lumen, the Centurion of Light, they would just ask Sheena to have Shadow and Luna lend them the power to hatch them when they would meet her in Flanoir, if what she said about her stationing herself and some of her ninjas in the snowing city was true.

They were now on the snowy terrain near Flanoir walking to the Temple of Ice, the Rheairds having run out of electricity several days ago.

It couldn't be helped as Volt was indisposed at the moment and Tonitrus, which could be used as an alternate source of lightning mana, was still recovering. It was true that normally the Centurions would regain most of their power the moment they were hatched, but this was a special occasion in which the elemental mana in the atmosphere wasn't as rich as before. Therefore, they had left Tonitrus in the Temple of Lightning to gather mana as the process would be faster if the Centurion stayed in an environment full of mana of their own elemental affinity. There was a special link between Ratatosk and Tonitrus and the Centurion of Lightning could come anytime he wanted anyway.

The Temple of Ice was within their visage, so when Ratatosk suddenly said the cryptic words 'time's up' they were a bit scared that he was referring to the time limit in which Emil could still be saved. However, upon seeing the expression the Summon Spirit had on his face, they knew it was about something else. They, except Colette, focused on Ratatosk, curious as to what he was going to say, and missed the pained look etched on Genis' face at those two little words as he lowered his head.

"Wait. Ratatosk." Colette bravely stepped up to the glaring red eyed Summon Spirit and placed herself between him and Genis.

"Colette, we have been through this. It's already ten days." Ratatosk narrowed his eyes, intensifying his glare and unconsciously felt something akin to guilt when he saw Colette flinched under his gaze. "I agreed when you said you wanted a few days and I have even generously extended those 'few' days to ten days. And I don't want to hear crap like we should wait till all of us are gathered."

The others, though curious as to what they were talking about, could read the situation and knew it wasn't their place to say anything, so they opted to stay silent and wait for those three to resolve their little problem. They didn't have to wait long when Ratatosk averted his gaze from Colette and looked at them.

"There was a reason the demons have chosen now of all times to launch their attack." All eyes, except Genis', were on the Summon Spirit as he started. "It started when Richter said he would open the door for them in exchange for Aster's revival. They had cooked up something similar and had revived someone else to do the job for them, also with the lure of the revival of his loved one. The only reason they took this long to carry out this plan was that they needed to do much preparation to revive that person."

Raine, Presea and Richter were shocked at the revelation, though because of different reasons. Richter was shocked and was feeling guilty at being so blinded by rage that he had thought naively at the time that he could trick the demons into reviving Aster and didn't account for the fact that they might use a similar plan for their own benefit in the future. Therefore, in a way, he was indirectly the culprit of the current crisis. Raine and Presea, though also shocked that it was based off of Richter's whim to revive Aster, were more stunned by the fact that Genis and Colette apparently already knew about it and had chosen to withheld such important information from them.

"That person is-"

"It is our friend, Mithos Yggdrasill." Genis looked up from the ground and saw Colette bravely cut off Ratatosk's monologue and said with conviction that it was Mithos, _their friend_, that the demons had chosen to revive.

Raine and Presea gasped when they heard the name of the previous leader of Cruxis while Richter just narrowed his eyes. Although the bespectacled half elf hadn't met this Mithos Yggdrasill, the fallen hero, in person before, he knew of the things he had done and the type of person he was from the stories Verius had told them whenever he decided to drop by.

"I guess it makes sense that the demons would choose Mithos. After all, he's powerful and would stop at nothing if it means his sister can be resurrected." Genis' gaze fell on Raine at his sister's cold logic and felt the urge to say something, anything, to defend the half-elf-turned-angel.

"No!" Genis shouted, catching the attentions of the the whole group. "Mithos refused the demons! He isn't in league with them! He was just being controlled!"

There was a hardened look in Raine as she held her brother's gaze that were full of desperation. "And just why would you know that?"

Colette stepped closer to Genis. "I know because he was with the demon when it possessed me and I have seen his memories. In fact, I only agreed to leave because Mithos said he would look after Lloyd for me."

Richter closed his eyes and tried to recall the time when he was possessed. He did remember fragments of memories rushing into his mind when he was possessed, but those fragmented memories were so scattered that he couldn't make anything out of them. Though did recall a tiny voice telling him to keep his hold on the fragments of the shattered Sacred Stone and Ratatosk's Core. There was even a foreign source giving him the strength to do so, before his, or their, struggle to get rid of the demon ended when the second Summon Spirit of Darkness also entered his mind and fueled the demon enough energy to control his arms to tear and throw away the shattered pieces.

Raine crossed her arms before her, the hardened look was still there as she looked at Colette. "It doesn't mean anything. He could have simply wanted to get rid of you and Zelos so they could more easily capture Lloyd."

Richter took in the scene before him. There was a hint of hurt in the eyes of both the young half elf and the blond Chosen, even when they tried to stand firm against the logical and analytic woman. Ratatosk and Presea had fell silent since Colette first opened her mouth, opting to see how it would play out instead. He didn't know much about the members of this party except Ratatosk, but he still felt the need to put his two cents in.

"Although I can't recall much, there was indeed a third person there giving me the strength to fight back the demon that possessed me even before Lloyd and the others showed up." He nodded at Colette. "In fact, if not for that person, I wouldn't have known the method to drive out the demon that later possessed the Cho- Colette and the demon would have succeeded in using Colette's body to kill us."

Colette beamed at Richter, glad that he had stood up for them and had called her by her given name and not just 'the Chosen' anymore. "Yes. And Lloyd is strong. Although I am worried," she spared a glance at Genis and saw him grinning encouragingly at her admission that she was worried, "I know that together with Mithos and Verius, they will be able to escape and come back to us soon."

Although Raine still had a frown on her face, she knew there wasn't much she could do to sway the others anymore and gingerly nodded. It wasn't as if she's purposefully asking Genis and Colette to rethink their opinion of Mithos, she just didn't want to see her brother hurt and crying over the ex-leader of Cruxis anymore.

"What do you mean Verius?" Presea, having been quiet throughout the whole exchange, finally asked and Genis let out a small grunt as he saw Ratatosk's look and knew that he would be the one doing the full explanation.

* * *

"I feel weak." Lloyd stated as he experimentally swung his newly acquired swords around several times.

"This will have to do. It isn't like we have the time to wait for you to get your full strength back." The Minotaur standing before him grunted in a very deep voice, there was also an accent so strong that the words were nearly indistinguishable and Lloyd had to focus hard to make out the words said.

Lloyd frowned. "It's weird when you talk like that."

The Minotaur snorted. They fell silent after that as they waited for Verius to finish his part. They were now in the security room of the prison. Three Minotaurs, the prison guards, were sprawled on the ground unconscious.

When the thirty minutes rest was up, the door to Lloyd's cell was opened, revealing an already possessed Minotaur. The Minotaur, or rather Mithos, had taken two swords from the storage before coming to Lloyd so the Eternal Swordsman wouldn't remain weapon-less. They made quick way to the security room, which was also the room linking to the outside world, and had easily dispatched the three remaining Minotaurs who were playing card games to occupy their time again.

Verius' job was to implant false memories into their mind so that when they woke up, they would have something akin to a massive hangover and think that they had just been drinking too much whatever Minotaur drank to get drunk the other day. They wouldn't know that something's wrong until they decided to next drag Lloyd for another session of mental torture. It seemed handy, Verius' ability to implant false memories that is, but in this mana lacking underworld, the power of the Summon Spirit of Heart could only be used on lesser demons and even then he couldn't use it as frequent as they would have liked.

_Done. We can go now. _The fox like Summon Spirit's voice resounded in both their minds loud and clear.

Mithos nodded at Lloyd who started concentrating mana to the center of his body. He molded the mana like Mithos did when he demonstrated how to do it from within his body and then distributed it to every part of his body. He felt the starting-to-be-familiar weird tug on his body, both externally and internally, as his body started to shrink a bit to fit the bill of an old man too old to walk without a stick. His hair turned white with some grey streaks here and there. It also grew in length.

The process seemed long, but in reality it had only taken less than a second. When the transformation finished, Lloyd had become an old man with hair nearly reaching the middle of his thigh and obscuring most of his face. Mithos went to a corner of the room where a closet was and opened it. After rummaging for a while, he retrieved a worn grey-almost-black cloth and handed it to Lloyd.

The newly transformed old man glanced warily at the 'rag' Mithos was offering him. "What's this?" He wrinkled his nose at the smell it was emitting.

Mithos sighed. "I assure you it's not _that_ dirty."

Lloyd raised an eyebrow. "And how would you know that?"

Mithos rolled his eyes. "I have this Minotaur's memories. Now hurry up, we don't have time for this."

The twin swordsman gave one last skeptical glance at the 'rag' – he refused to call it anything other than that – before holding in his breath and grabbing it from Mithos and wrapping it around his now dull red shirt in one swift movement.

Mithos shook his head at the other's action. Without another word, he strolled over to the door before them and pushed it open.

"I guess it's welcome to Niflheim." Mithos said bemusedly when he noticed the curious stare his companion was giving the barren landscape and the orange sky of Niflheim. After a while, Mithos decided that Lloyd would snap out of it on his own and walked to the front gate of the prison.

Lloyd heard the sound of metal clinking and saw the possessed demon had gone on to open the gates. He ran up to him and blinked at the key the other was twisting around in the lock. "We are going to walk out through the entrance? Just like that?"

"Yes." Mithos replied nonchalantly as the distinctive click that signified the lock was opened was heard. "Were you thinking of those stupid movie about people having to go through sewers, walking within shadows or climbing over walls to break out of prison?" He smirked as he pushed open the heavy gate.

Lloyd flushed red at Mithos' suggestion, embarrassed that he was caught thinking of those silly but at the same time 'cool' – at least in his opinion – stuff. But then the flush disappeared and was replaced by puzzlement. "Mo-vie? What is it?"

Mithos nearly tripped as he heard the tone in Lloyd's question. "What!? It's over a decade since the world was reunited and no one has reinvented television yet!?"

"Tele- _what_?"

Mithos pinched the bridge of his nose. "What has Yuan been doing? If he had decided to _not_ go to Derris Kharlan with Kratos just so he can help restore the world to its former glory, he should have at least reintroduced the world to some of the forms of entertainment that was lost during the Kharlan War. It isn't like it required much mana to run anyway."

"Well, he _is _the guardian of the new World Tree. So I don't think he has much time to invent things for entertainment. " That might be what he said, but Lloyd knew that things had mostly been quite the past decade or so, after the mess with Ratatosk and Richter, and so the blue haired angel should have a lot of time to do other things. But for some bizarre reason, Lloyd felt the need to defend the man who had been like an uncle to him since his biological father left this world.

Mithos just shook his head, not seeing the need to dwell on it further and start another unnecessary 'childish' argument with the stubborn boy. "We are taking the left road there." He informed the other as he pointed at the crossroad that were still quite a distance away from them.

* * *

Yuan panted to catch his breath as he rested on a large rock near the World Tree. He had a tired look as he stared at the sea of corpse before him. He had been at it for nearly three weeks straight already and truth be told, he had been sick of it since two weeks ago. He was also agitated. Though neither Lloyd nor Martel was here to tell him what happened, he still had contacts and from them he had heard about the demonic invasion in Altamira. However, that's all the information he could get. It was only his guess that the 'demons' that attacked the city was indeed those from Niflheim, and he was agitated at the thought of the seal on the door in Ginungagap being removed.

His senses picked up lots of mana signatures approaching and he tensed, ready for another battle, though he was a bit wary at the coming of another wave of monsters so soon after the last one. As the mana signatures came closer Yuan let out a sigh and relaxed. The mana signatures he sensed were not of monsters. He waited for a while and was confused when the mana signatures stopped moving when they were still quite a distance from his current position. Moments later his confusion became irritation, irritation at himself, when he realized that the others couldn't come closer because of the blasted barrier that couldn't stop monsters but somehow could still stop people.

He pulled out the wing pack with recovery items and from it an orange gel. He swallowed it and felt his mana level increasing as the gel made its way down his throat. With the replenished strength, he gathered mana and emerald wings flashed briefly behind his back as he waved his hand around in a dismissal gesture. The thick mist surrounding the World Tree started dissipating as Yuan felt the mana maintaining the barrier was cut off and the barrier was gone in an instant.

Now that he can see better without the thick mist, he saw many half elves approaching. A smile graced his lips for the first time since the monsters started invading when he took in the appearance of them, or more precisely, the new uniform they were wearing. Well, to be fair, they weren't _that _new, considering they had changed the design of their uniform once the world was united. They couldn't have people running around saying Desians had come back just because they mistook the Renegades as Desians.

Yes, he had called for his old band to gather. If his guess about demons in Niflheim coming to Aselia being true, then they needed more people protecting the World Tree. After all, mana was the main source of energy that drove the demons away and it's only natural that the demons would target the World Tree first. No matter how good he was, he was just one man and there's only so much one man could do against armies of demons or monsters. After nearly three weeks of defending the World Tree non-stop, even he, an angel, was starting to get tired.

However, what he didn't expect when he called for the Renegades to gather was for so many people responding to his request to come, especially since he had officially disbanded the Renegades more than a decade ago. He also had never thought that they would have kept their uniforms for so long.

"Lord Yuan!" One of the Renegades walked up to his ex-leader and saluted.

The guardian of the World Tree had an amused look as he looked at his past subordinates. The new uniform didn't have a helmet so Yuan could easily tell who the one that just saluted was, although he could also do that before as he had memorized the voice of most of his man. It was Bardo, Botta's younger brother. Although he had never chosen another second in command after Botta's death, most of his men just naturally assumed that Bardo would be the one to take his brother's place, if he were to ever appoint one.

"Drop the formalities, Bardo, the Renegades are already disbanded and I am no longer your leader. I was simply calling for some reinforcement as a friend."

Bardo seemed to want to protest but the words died in his throat as they suddenly felt a shift of mana in the atmosphere and tensed up. Yuan furrowed his brow and turned around to look at the direction of the World Tree . The shift was from that direction. Just then he heard yelling from some of his men and whirled around. He saw a large creature dashing past the half elven army. It was running so fast that even Yuan, with his angelic sight, couldn't make out its appearance. It didn't help that the mana signature of the creature was not of any species Yuan was familiar with, and that's saying something considering he had knowledge on species, distinct or not, that walked on Aselia over the past four millenniums.

He took out his swallow and Bardo and the Regenades also took out their own weapons, ready to attack the unknown creature. However, they didn't get to have the chance as it soon raced past Yuan who, even with his enhanced speed, couldn't do anything to stop the fast running creature. He grunted and started running after the unknown creature and towards the World Tree.

He turned his head slightly back to the others while still running and shouted his order. "Bardo, you follow me. The others stand guard here and set up a defence line, do not let anything get pass you."

"Yes sir!" Yuan would have rolled his eyes at the unison reply his _past _subordinates gave him if not for the situation. However, dire as the current situation, he couldn't help but let another smile graced his lips when he heard another set of footsteps following behind him and the others getting to work.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

**Strawberry Eggs** - Glad to see you like the chapter so much ^^ By the way, I thought the correct spelling was 'Niflheim'? I mean, Nifelheim was the correct spelling if we are talking about the mythology, but I thought it was 'Niflheim' in the game? Also, thank you for giving me the idea of writing about the Centurions. Well, truth be told, I have never thought about that part... but now that you mention it, I guess I might try to come up with some great appearances and personalities for them XD

**Kathiryn Orlinski** - Wow, just wow. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing my three long fictions! Also thanks for the vote of confidence about my action scene ^^ About Mithos' last words, when I was reading it again recently, I am not very sure about the context of his words anymore. My interpretation before was that he was referring to the 'fallen' side of his as his shadow. But then what about 'I wanted my own world, so I don't regret my choice. I would make the same choice all over again'? I am a bit confused about that and would like to know what you make of it. Hmmm... I haven't thought of killing anyone randomly, at least not permanently, before. But after seeing your review, maybe I might try something like that? (Just joking XD) By the way, I know there's no protocol about this, but I think I will leave the answer to your question about Fonic Interruption in the A/N of Crystalline Disturbance when I next update(which hopefully will be sometime tomorrow).

Finally we are back to where the prologue was~ I know the last ten days or so were passing very fast compared to before, but all this time skipping was taking a toll on me and sometimes and had to go back and forth just to remember who had said or done what at what time :P

And, as you may have noticed in my past chapters, I don't like writing scenes with absolutely nothing contributing to the plot happening, like what happened when Ratatosk's party went to the Temple of Lightning and the battle they might or might not have when going to hatch Tonitrus. Well, I would still write that out, but only in the narration and not the exact scenes. So yeah... quite a lot of skipping around...

_Uploaded on 18 Jul 2013._


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